Mass estimates of rapidly moving prominence material from high-cadence EUV images

Abstract

We present a new method for determining the column density of erupting filament material using state-of-the-art multi-wavelength imaging data. Much of the prior work on filament/prominence structure can be divided between studies that use a polychromatic approach with targeted campaign observations and those that use synoptic observations, frequently in only one or two wavelengths. The superior time resolution, sensitivity, and near-synchronicity of data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory's Advanced Imaging Assembly allow us to combine these two techniques using photoionization continuum opacity to determine the spatial distribution of hydrogen in filament material. We apply the combined techniques to SDO/AIA observations of a filament that erupted during the spectacular coronal mass ejection on 2011 June 7. The resulting "polychromatic opacity imaging" method offers a powerful way to track partially ionized gas as it erupts through the solar atmosphere on a regular basis, without the need for coordinated observations, thereby readily offering regular, realistic mass-distribution estimates for models of these erupting structures. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.