Why Are Solar Filaments More Extended in Extreme-Ultraviolet Lines than in Hα?

Abstract

A long solar filament was observed simultaneously in the Hα line by THEMIS/MSDP and in selected EUV lines by the Coronal Diagnostic Spectrometer on SOHO. Co-alignment of optical and EUV images reveals that the dark EUV filament is much more extended than the Hα filament. Assuming that the EUV filament represents Lyman continuum absorption of the background EUV-line radiation, a straightforward explanation of this effect is suggested. Based on non-LTE filament models, we demonstrate that the ratio of the Lyman continuum to Hα opacity can reach a factor of 50-100, and thus the EUV filament is still well visible while the Hα line contrast diminishes below the detection limit. This kind of interpretation leads to an important conclusion that the cool filament material in which the Lyman continuum absorption takes place is more abundant than one would expect from Hα disk observations. This then may have significant consequences on the filament structure and on formation models, as well as on mass considerations related to coronal mass ejections.