Fine-scale structures and material flows of quiescent filaments observed by the New Vacuum Solar Telescope

• Published in: Research in astronomy and astrophysics 2015-10, Vol.15 (10), p.1725-1734
• Main Authors: Yan, Xiao-Li, Xue, Zhi-Ke, Xiang, Yong-Yuan, Yang, Li-Heng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Astronomy; Boundaries; Evolution; Filaments; Formations; Small scale; Space telescopes; Spine; Sun: activity; Sun: corona; Sun: filaments, prominences; 太阳能; 小尺度结构; 望远镜观测; 物质流动; 真空; 精细结构; 细丝; 静态
• ISSN: 1674-4527; 2397-6209
• DOI: 10.1088/1674-4527/15/10/009

Abstract Study of the small-scale structures and material flows associated with solar quiescent filaments is very important for understanding the formation and equilibrium of solar filaments. Using high resolution Ha data observed by the New Vacuum Solar Telescope, we present the structures of barbs and material flows along the threads across the spine in two quiescent filaments on 2013 September 29 and on 2012 November 2, respectively. During the evolution of the filament barb, several paral- lel tube-shaped structures formed and the width of the structures ranged from about 2.3 Mm to 3.3 Mm. The parallel tube-shaped structures merged together accompanied by material flows from the spine to the barb. Moreover, the boundary between the barb and surrounding atmosphere was very neat. The counter-streaming flows were not found to appear alternately in the adjacent threads of the filament. However, the large-scale patchy counter-streaming flows were detected in the filament. The flows in one patch of the filament have the same direction but flows in the adjacent patch have opposite direction. The patches of two opposite flows with a size of about 10＂ were alternately exhibited along the spine of the filament. The velocity of these material flows ranged from 5.6 km s^-1 to 15.0 km s^-1. The material flows along the threads of the filament did not change their direction for about two hours and fourteen minutes during the evolution of the filament. Our results confirm that the large-scale counter- streaming flows with a certain width along the threads of solar filaments exist and are coaligned well with the threads.