Eruption of a large quiescent prominence on January 14, 1993

Abstract

In this paper an analysis of a large quiescent prominence which erupted on January 14, 1993 is carried out. Observations of this prominence were initiated on January 12, 1993 when it made its first appearance on the east limb. One interesting phenomenon which we noticed was that on January 13, 1993 thee was a flare-like brightening of the prominence and it attained maximum volume with twisted structure. It seems that on January 14, 1993 the structure became more compact and dense with highly twisted flux tubes. The activation of the prominence seems to have been trigged by the plage brightening in the near by active region. At the initial phase the velocity was low but oscillatory in nature. Later on it rose sharply reaching about 1400 kms¯¹ in the final stage, disappearing away. The prominence material was visible upto a height of 6.4x10⁵ km. Thereafter it faded out. A surge-like activity was also observed during the decay phase at the foot point. The strongly sheared channel, underwent some reconnections. As a consequence, the magnetic system of the prominence got transfered into a huge arch which finally erupted. The morphology and evolution of the prominence is given in the light of existing models.