Energy release in the solar atmosphere from a stream of infalling prominence debris

Abstract

Recent high-resolution and high-cadence EUV imaging has revealed a new phenomenon, impacting prominence debris, where prominence material from failed or partial eruptions can impact the lower atmosphere, releasing energy. We report a clear example of energy release and EUV brightening due to infalling prominence debris that occurred on 2011 September 7-8. The initial eruption of material was associated with an X1.8-class flare from AR11283, occurring at 22:30 UT on 2011 September 7. Subsequently, a semi-continuous stream of this material returned to the solar surface with a velocity v > 150 km/s, impacting a region remote from the original active region between 00:20 - 00:40 UT on 2011 September 8. Using SDO/AIA, the differential emission measure of the plasma was estimated throughout this brightening event. We found that the radiated energy of the impacted plasma was L_rad ~10^27 ergs, while the thermal energy peaked at ~10^28 ergs. From this we were able to determine the mass content of the debris to be in the range 2x10^14 < m < 2x10^15 g. Given typical promimence masses, the likely debris mass is towards the lower end of this range. This clear example of a prominence debris event shows that significant energy release takes place during these events, and that such impacts may be used as a novel diagnostic tool for investigating prominence material properties.