A method for the determination of 3-D velocity fields of disappearing solar filaments

Abstract

The 3-D velocity fields of disappearing filaments (Disparition Brusques: DBs) on the solar disk were extensively studied in order to determine their 3-D velocity fields. Applying Beckers' cloud model to 5 DB events observed in the Ha line center and Hα ± 0.8 Å with the Flare Monitoring Telescope (FMT) at Hida Observatory, we developed a method to derive the complete 3-D velocity field of DBs. The line-of-sight velocity is obtained (i) by calculating the Ha line profile of the filament, and (ii) by measuring the Doppler shift which best fits to the observed temporal variations of contrasts of the filament. The tangential velocity is obtained by tracing the motions of the internal structures on the successive images. In this method, corrections for the effective filter bandwidths of the instrument, stray lights, and Doppler brightening effect are performed. We also discuss the velocity errors which arise from the intrinsic variations of the filament plasma during its activation, the fluctuations in intensities of the background chromosphere, and the choice of different forms of the spread function for estimating the stray light. It is emphasized that the calculation of three-dimensional vector trajectories of a disappearing filament with our method can enhance the quality of a space weather forecast with better certainty.