Bibcode
Martínez González, M. J.; Asensio Ramos, A.; Arregui, I.; Collados, M.; Beck, C.; de la Cruz Rodríguez, J.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 825, Issue 2, article id. 119, pp. (2016).
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7
2016
Journal
Citations
16
Refereed citations
15
Description
Solar tornadoes are dark vertical filamentary structures observed in the
extreme ultraviolet associated with prominence legs and filament barbs.
Their true nature and relationship to prominences requires an
understanding of their magnetic structure and dynamic properties.
Recently, a controversy has arisen: is the magnetic field organized
forming vertical, helical structures or is it dominantly horizontal? And
concerning their dynamics, are tornadoes really rotating or is it just a
visual illusion? Here we analyze four consecutive spectro-polarimetric
scans of a prominence hosting tornadoes on its legs, which helps us shed
some light on their magnetic and dynamical properties. We show that the
magnetic field is very smooth in all the prominence, which is probably
an intrinsic property of the coronal field. The prominence legs have
vertical helical fields that show slow temporal variation that is
probably related to the motion of the fibrils. Concerning the dynamics,
we argue that (1) if rotation exists, it is intermittent, lasting no
more than one hour, and (2) the observed velocity pattern is also
consistent with an oscillatory velocity pattern (waves).