Survey of high-altitude partially erupting prominences

Abstract:

Solar prominences exhibit a range of eruptive-like dynamic activity, including in some cases the confined or 'failed' ejection of prominence material from the solar atmosphere. Many prominences exhibit a partial eruption in which some mass escapes while the remaining mass drains back to the photosphere. This process may involve the formation of an X-type neutral line in this region, which allows disconnection of part of the prominence material. In a previous study (Gilbert et al. 2000) it was found that this separation tends to occur in the height range from 1.20 to 1.35 R_sun. More recently, the separation point in these types of partial eruptions has been observed to occur at much larger heights. We investigate a selection of these higher partial eruptions, exploring the characteristics of the prominences and their associated CMEs to better understand the dynamical processes in the solar atmosphere associated with eruption.