The Magnetic Structure of Filament Barbs
Publication date: 11 June 2005
Authors: Chae, J., et al.
Journal: ApJ
Volume: 626
Issue: 1
Page: 574-578
Year: 2005
Copyright: The American Astronomical Society
There is a controversy about how features protruding laterally from filaments, called barbs, are magnetically structured. On 2004 August 3, we observed a filament that had well-developed barbs. The observations were performed using the 10 inch refractor of the Big Bear Solar Observatory. A fast camera was employed to capture images at five different wavelengths of the Halpha line and successively record them on the basis of frame selection. The terminating points of the barbs were clearly discernable in the Halpha images without any ambiguity. The comparison of the Halpha images with the magnetograms taken by SOHO MDI revealed that the termination occurred above the minor polarity inversion line dividing the magnetic elements of the major polarity and those of the minor polarity. There is also evidence that the flux cancellation proceeded on the polarity inversion line. Our results together with similar other recent observations support the idea that filament barbs are cool matter suspended in local dips of magnetic field lines, formed by magnetic reconnection in the chromosphere.
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