Possible Amount of Magnetic Flux Reconnected Through Quiescent Prominences Outside the Active Regions

Abstract

Quiescent prominences are known to occur invariably above the neutral lines in the large scale photospheric fields. This suggests that such prominences may be coronal current sheets across which the magnetic fields reconnect (cf. e.g. Raadu and Kuperus, 1973). In the absence of any satisfactory model for quiescent prominences (cf. Report of Working Group 1 in this Colloquium), the reconnection hypothesis remains as yet unsettled. However, if it is true, we have here an evidence to show that the quiescent prominences outside the active regions might account for the reconnection of almost all the photospheric magnetic flux emerging in the active regions as required by the theories of the 11-yr cycle of activity (e.g. Babcock, 1961).