THE FORMATION AND ERUPTION OF SOLAR QUIESCENT PROMINENCES

Abstract

Following the two-stage catastrophic flux rope model presented by Zhang et al., we investigate how magnetic flux emergence affects the formation and evolution of solar quiescent prominences. The magnetic properties of the flux rope are described with its toroidal magnetic flux per radian Phi(p) and poloidal flux Phi(phi), and Phi(p) is defined as the emerging strength (ES) of the magnetic flux. After the first catastrophe, the quiescent prominences are supported by the vertical current sheet and located in cavities below the curved transverse current sheet in the inner corona, for which both ES and Phi(phi) are in the certain ranges. We calculate the strength range as 0.25 < ES < 0.50 for the quadrupolar field, and obtain the equation Phi(p)Phi(phi) = const., that is, the relationship between Phi(p) and Phi(phi) of the emerging flux for which the quiescent prominences are formed in the inner corona. After the second catastrophe, the quiescent prominences would either fall down onto the solar surface or erupt as an important part of coronal mass ejections. During the eruption of the quiescent prominences, most of the magnetic energy in the flux rope is lost, and less than half of the energy loss of the rope is released in the form of Alfven waves. We argue that there would be two important conditions required for the formation and eruption of solar quiescent prominences, a complicated source region and emerging toroidal magnetic flux that exceeds a critical strength.