The impact of flares on prominences in the Sun

We performed two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic numerical simulations to study coronal shock generation, propagation and impact on prominences, and their subsequent oscillations.

Under the supervision of Prof. Fernando Moreno-Insertis and Prof. Manuel Luna, we studied the generation of coronal shocks by a sudden energy release, its propagation along the magnetic field lines and its impact on a modeled prominence. We also extended the existing theory about shocks under thermal conduction effects, obtaining numerical solutions for their time evolution starting from a localized heat-deposition event, and, also, using simple initial profiles, their asymptotic trend toward those found in the earlier analytical studies.

Finally, we performed two-dimensional simulations in which a prominence is self-consistently formed and a sudden energy release at a footpoint of the filament channel generates a perturbation of shock type. We studied the perturbation propagation and impact in detail for the first time. Applying the foregoing results to the solar case, we concluded that the impact of a coronal shock generated by a flare-like explosive event can produce large amplitude longitudinal prominence oscillations, with parameters in agreement with observed values.

The work can be seen published in the Universidad de La Laguna’s institutional repository: https://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/44985, and is attached below.