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At least 199 records · Page 11

Coronal X-ray enhancements associated with H-alpha filament disappearances

The X-ray telescope experiment aboard the Skylab/ATM mission provided high-resolution soft X-ray images of the lower corona away from active regions, revealing frequent large-scale transient X-ray enhancements which could often be associated with the disappearance of H-alpha filaments. The X-ray emitting structures featured peak brightnesses similar to those of nonflaring active region structures, durations from 3 to 40 hours, shapes that in general outlined the preexisting H-alpha filaments to as large as 400,000 km, apparent expansion velocities of the order of tens of km/sec, and observed peak temperatures of the order of a few million degrees. One such event is described and analyzed in detail. Two explanations of the events are discussed: (1) excess cool material is present in the filament cavity, contributing to the X-ray enhancement, and (2) the enhancement is due to the compression of preexisting material by a changing magnetic field.

Webb, D. F.↗

Motion of a curved vortex filament with decaying vortical core and axial velocity

The motion and decay of a curved vortex filament having large axial and circumferential velocity components in a three-dimensional stream are analyzed by using the method of matched asymptotic expansions of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. The small parameter is the square root of the ratio of the kinematic viscosity to the circulation. The outer region is analyzed by the classical Biot-Savart law, and its solution is matched to that of the inner region, where viscous effects are important. Equations describing the coupling between the inner vortex structure and the motion of the vortex filament as well as the time evolution of the inner vortex structure are obtained. Equations are derived for the motion of the vortex filament and for the change and decay in time and space of the leading-order circumferential and axial velocity and vorticity components. Solutions are constructed for these components in terms of initial data.

Callegari, A. J.↗

Automatic filament warm-up controller

As part of the unattended operations objective of the Deep Space Network deep space stations, this filament controller serves as a step between manual operation of the station and complete computer control. Formerly, the operator was required to devote five to fifteen minutes of his time just to properly warm up the filaments on the klystrons of the high power transmitters. The filament controller reduces the operator's duty to a one-step command and is future-compatible with various forms of computer control.

Mccluskey, J.↗

NGC 1275 and the Perseus cluster - The formation of optical filaments in cooling gas in X-ray clusters

The paper generalizes previous discussions of the steady-flow models by allowing for the effects of angular momentum, which may be important in the central cooled regions of rich clusters of galaxies. The thermal stability of the flow is studied in a general way by relaxing the assumption that the perturbations comove. It is found that they are only unstable for a restricted range of initial parameters. Situations in which cold filaments can form are considered, and the subsequent evolution and excitation of such filaments are discussed. An estimate of the mass-to-light ratio of NGC 1275 is obtained by comparing the obtained results with the low-velocity filamentation system surrounding NGC 1275 in the Perseus cluster. Finally, the various aspects of cooling accretion flows in clusters are summarized.

Cowie, L. L.↗

The corona associated with solar filaments

Spectroheliograms in high temperature ions such as Fe XV show the existence of both filaments that are brighter than the ambient corona and filaments that are darker than the ambient corona. The relationship of the filaments to photospheric magnetograms is described, and a possible physical mechanism to explain the differences is discussed.

Chapman, R. D.↗

The Crab Nebula. I - Spectrophotometry of the filaments

Relative line intensities in the 3700-7400 A region are obtained from new spectrophotometric measurements of ten positions in the Crab Nebula. O III forbidden line intensities imply electron temperatures of 11,000-18,300 K, while generally lower temperatures are indicated by the O II, N II and S II forbidden lines. The 6717 and 6731 A forbidden S II line ratio yields electron density estimates of 550-3500/cu cm, with a typical filament value of 1300 cu cm. While Balmer decrements are generally consistent with pure recombination, some filaments show steeper decrements. He line intensities are found to have significant variation. The presence of a moderately strong line at 7378 A, which may be due to the Ni II forbidden line is confirmed. Some filaments are found to exhibit a wide range of ionization states.

Fesen, R. A.↗

The shape of cooling filaments in old supernova remnants

The evolution of a filament in an old supernova remnant is investigated in two dimensions using analytical methods to determine its structure and stability and to show whether it collapses into a sheet or a cylinder. All parameters are assumed constant along the length of the feature. The cross section of the filament is found to flatten as it cools, and to degenerate into a thin sheet which is unstable to asymmetric warping disturbances. This probably leads to a number of parallel striations as the filament splits up, consistent with observations in the Cygnus Loop. The ratio of depth to width is typically 10:1, and so the feature may appear to be tubelike or a sheet, depending on perspective. The application to Vela and Puppis, IC 443, S 147, and CTB 1 is pointed out.

Smith, M. D.↗

Oscillations and stationary motions in filaments

Observations of oscillations in filaments, which are cold magnetic structures suspended in the corona, are used to test theories of coronal heating by acoustic waves high in the atmosphere. Long lived stationary motions observed in filaments suggest exchanges of material between them and the surrounding corona. A coupling between upflows in filaments and subphotospheric convective motions, dragging the field lines of the prominence magnetic support, is possible.

Schmieder, B.↗

Filamental quenching of the current-driven ion-cyclotron instability

Since their discovery by D'Angelo and Motley (1962), ion-cyclotron waves have been an area of active research. Drummond and Rosenbluth (1962) have first conducted a theoretical analysis of the current-driven ion-cyclotron wave instability, taking into account a uniform, magnetized plasma, without magnetic shear, in which electrons drift along B field lines with the same drift velocity at all points in the plasma. Bakshi et al. (1983) have found conditions for which the instability is completely quenched. This phenomenon has been referred to as filamental quenching. The present investigation is concerned with a systematic test of the filamental quenching effect. It is found that filamental quenching operates at widths of the current channel comparable to the local Larmor radius, in agreement with the conclusions of Bakshi et al.

Cartier, S. L.↗

Filament disappearances

The phenomenon of the sudden filament disappearance (Disparition Brusque) is a familiar one to observers at H alpha telescopes. Nevertherless, the importance in Disparition Brusques (DB) continues to grow for several reasons which are cited in the discussion. It is reported that there seems to be more interest on building and maintain filaments than in destroying them. As a consequence, this sub-group is smaller than most of the others. All the same, progress in this area of filament disapperences seems steady and assured. The importance and interest in DBs is discussed and future directions are indicated.

Wagner, William J.↗

Interplanetary shocks preceded by solar filament eruptions

The solar and interplanetary characteristics of six interplanetary shock and energetic particle events associated with the eruptions of solar filaments lying outside active regions are discussed. The events are characterized by the familiar double-ribbon H-alpha brightenings observed with large flares, but only very weak soft X-ray and microwave bursts. Both impulsive phases and metric type II bursts are absent in all six events. The energetic particles observed near the earth appear to be accelerated predominantly in the interplanetary shocks. The interplanetary shock speeds are lower and the longitudinal extents considerably less than those of flare-associated shocks. Three of the events were associated with unusual enhancements of singly-ionized helium in the solar wind following the shocks. These enhancements appear to be direct detections of the cool filament material expelled from the corona. It is suggested that these events are part of a spectrum of solar eruptive events which include both weaker events and the large flares. Despite their unimpressive and unreported solar signatures, the quiescent filament eruptions can result in substantial space and geophysical disturbances.

Cane, H. V.↗

A method for overcoming the velocity space filamentation problem in collisionless plasma model solutions

The solution of filtered Vlasov-Maxwell equations, rather than the Vlasov-Maxwell equations themselves, is shown to ameliorate the velocity space filamentation problem in collisionless plasma models. Exact field solutions and filtered velocity distribution functions are obtained without introducing errors. Proper selection of the filter width is demonstrated to inhibit development of velocity space filamentation and, it is conjectured, position space filamentation. The results of sample calculations of both filtered and nonfiltered field solutions illustrate a high degree of agreement between both solutions, with significant savings in computational time and memory requirements with the filtered solutions.

Klimas, Alexander J.↗

Dynamics of solar filaments. V - Oscillations in the H-alpha and 1548 A C IV lines

The Multichannel Subtractive Double Pass (MSDP) Spectrograph operating in the Meudon solar tower and the Ultraviolet Spectrometer and Polarimeter (UVSP) aboard the Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) satellite are used to analyze, by Fourier transform technique, time sequence observations of filaments in both the H-alpha line and in the 1548 A C IV line. The H-alpha data confirm previous findings that there are no oscillations at the location of the filament in the observed range 1-10 mHz. In the C IV line, power is observed in some parts of the filament where a steady velocity gradient is present, e.g. in the footpoints. The energy is probably due to convection motions rather than pressure oscillations.

Malherbe, J. M.↗

Diamond film by hot filament CVD method

Diamond synthesis by the hot filament CVD method is discussed. A hot filament decomposes gas mixtures and oxygen containing organic compounds such as alcohols. which are carbon sources. The resulting thin films, growth mechanisms, and characteristics and problems associated with the hot filament CVD method are analyzed and evaluated.

Hirose, Y.↗

Interaction and merging of vortex filaments

The asymptotic solutions of Navier-Stokes equations for vortex filaments of finite strength with small effective vortical cores are summarized with special emphasis placed on the physical meaning and the practical limit to the applicability of the asymptotic solution. Finite-difference solutions of Navier-Stokes equations for the marging of the filament(s) are described with a focus on the development of the approximate boundary conditions for the computational domain. An efficiency study employing a model problem is used to assess the advantages of the present approximate boundary condition method over previously used techniques. Applications of the present method are presented for the motion and decay of a 3:1 elliptic vortex ring, and for the merging process of a pair of coaxial vortex rings. A numerical procedure for the problem of local merging of vortex filaments, which requires the asymptotic analysis as well as the numerical Navier-Stokes solver, is also presented.

Liu, C. H.↗

Filamentation instability of large-amplitude Alfven waves

An instability that leads to the filamentation of large-amplitude Alfven waves and gives rise to purely growing density and magnetic field fluctuations is studied. The dispersion relation of the instability is derived, from which the threshold conditions and the growth rates of the instability are analyzed quantitatively for applications to the solar wind plasma. Their dependence on the filamentation spectrum, the plasma beta, and the pump frequency and intensity was examined for both right-hand and left-hand circularly polarized Alfven waves. The excitation of filamentation instability for certain cases of interest is discussed and compared with that of the parametric decay and modulation instability. The relevance of the proposed instability to some observations is discussed.

Kuo, S. P.↗

The vertical structure of arch filament systems in solar emerging flux regions

The paper studies the vertical velocity of arch filaments in emerging flux regions by measuring their proper motion near the limb in H-alpha filtergrams and their radial velocity near the disk center in H-alpha spectrograms. Both show that arch filaments rise at a velocity between 10 and 15 km/s. The possible mechanisms producing this high velocity are discussed. None of them is satifactory, but it appears that the unloading of the arches by outflow must play a role. From the strength of H-alpha emission and D3 absorption, the temperature of arch filaments is estimated at 6000-15,000 K and the density at 10 to the 11th-12th/cu cm.

Chou, Dean-Yi↗

Spur-type instability observed on numerically simulated vortex filaments

An instability observed on vortex filaments during numerical simulations of the three-dimensional, time-dependent dynamics of vortex wakes is studied to determine when and why it occurs. It is concluded that the observed instability is a consequence of the use of straight-line vortex segments of finite length to model continuously curving vortex filaments. The instability appears to occur only when the link length is a sizable fraction of the vortex span and, therefore, is not expected in an experiment. Guidelines are then given that help avoid numerical instabilities when vortex filaments are used in flow simulations.

Rossow, Vernon J.↗