Supersonic flows observed by THEMIS related to a coronal bright point and filament
Abstract
In this paper, we report on the dynamics of the fine structure of a solar quiescent filament observed on September 28, 2023, with the Télescope Héliographique pour l'Etude du Magnétisme et des Instabilités Solaires (THEMIS). The main aim is to understand the relationship between the supersonic downflows measured in Hα at the filament end and an associated coronal bright point. We use a cloud-model method to derive the supersonic velocity of the falling, elongated cool blob. Besides, we use Hα Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) data to track the plasma along the filament. Repetitive plasma motions are observed along the northern end of the filament. During one event of plasma motion, the THEMIS field of view was centred on the filament end, where supersonic downflows of 89.8 km s−1 were measured with a standard deviation of ±0.25 km s−1. We suggest that the plasma moving along the filament could be falling towards the chromosphere. A ballistic trajectory could confirm this first scenario. However, we could not rule out the second scenario, in which coronal rain forms due to the thermal instability of coronal plasma. In the hot AIA channels, we identify a bright point at the same location, with a temperature reaching about 6 MK. In addition, we confirm a counter-streaming flow pattern along the fine filament strands, with widths of less than an arc second, as measured by the high-spatial- and spectral-resolution spectra of THEMIS.
Related
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- Episodic Plasma Flows and Coronal Brightenings in an Arch Filament System Observed with SUNRISE III
- Episodic Plasma Flows and Coronal Brightenings in an Arch Filament System Observed with Sunrise iii
- Time-dependent Simulations of Solar Wind Evolution from Subsonic to Supersonic Flow with Different Coronal-base Outflow Speeds
- Connectivity rewiring and filament formation by active region emergence observed with Solar Orbiter
BibTeX
@misc{karki2026supersonic,
title = {{Supersonic flows observed by THEMIS related to a coronal bright point and filament}},
author = {Garima Karki and Brigitte Schmieder and Ramesh Chandra and Pooja Devi and Pascal Demoulin and Stefaan Poedts},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.14321},
eprint = {2609.14321},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.14321},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Supersonic flows observed by THEMIS related to a coronal bright point and filament
AU - Garima Karki
AU - Brigitte Schmieder
AU - Ramesh Chandra
AU - Pooja Devi
AU - Pascal Demoulin
AU - Stefaan Poedts
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/13
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.14321
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.14321
AB - In this paper, we report on the dynamics of the fine structure of a solar quiescent filament observed on September 28, 2023, with the Télescope Héliographique pour l'Etude du Magnétisme et des Instabilités Solaires (THEMIS). The main aim is to understand the relationship between the supersonic downflows measured in Hα at the filament end and an associated coronal bright point. We use a cloud-model method to derive the supersonic velocity of the falling, elongated cool blob. Besides, we use Hα Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) data to track the plasma along the filament. Repetitive plasma motions are observed along the northern end of the filament. During one event of plasma motion, the THEMIS field of view was centred on the filament end, where supersonic downflows of 89.8 km s^−1 were measured with a standard deviation of ±0.25 km s^−1. We suggest that the plasma moving along the filament could be falling towards the chromosphere. A ballistic trajectory could confirm this first scenario. However, we could not rule out the second scenario, in which coronal rain forms due to the thermal instability of coronal plasma. In the hot AIA channels, we identify a bright point at the same location, with a temperature reaching about 6 MK. In addition, we confirm a counter-streaming flow pattern along the fine filament strands, with widths of less than an arc second, as measured by the high-spatial- and spectral-resolution spectra of THEMIS.
ER -