Eruptive Prominence and Associated CME Observed with SUMER, CDS and LASCO (SOHO)

Abstract

Observations of an eruptive prominence were obtained on 1 May 1996, with the SUMER and CDS instruments aboard SOHO during the preparatory phase of the Joint observing Programme JOP12. A coronal mass ejection observed with LASCO is associated temporally and spatially with this prominence. The main objective of JOP12 is to study the dynamics of prominences and the prominence-corona interface. By analysing the spectra of O IV and Si IV lines observed with SUMER and the spectra of 15 lines with CDS, Doppler shifts, temperatures and electron densities (ratio of O IV 1401 to 1399 Å) were derived in different structures of the prominence. The eruptive part of the prominence consists of a bubble (plasmoid) of material already at transition region temperatures with red shifts up to 100 km s^-1 and an electron density of the order of 10¹⁰ cm^-3. The whole prominence was very active. It developed both a large helical loop and several smaller loops consisting of twisted threads or multiple ropes, These may be studied in the SUMER movie (movie 2). The profiles of the SUMER lines show a large dispersion of velocities (±50 kms^-1) and the ratio of the O IV lines indicates a large dispersion in electron density (3 × 10⁹ cm^-3 to 3 × 10¹¹ cm^-3). The CME observed by LASCO left the corona some tens of minutes before the prominence erupted. This is evidence that the prominence eruptions are probably the result of the removal of the restraining coronal magnetic fields which are in part responsible for the original stability of the prominence.