Solar prominences are huge loops of solar material that extend outward from the sun's surface. They can be several miles wide and tall. Prominences form over timescales of about a day and contain cooler plasma than the corona, appearing as bright features against the dark sky. The largest prominence observed was over 350,000 km long. Prominences are anchored in the photosphere by magnetic fields and supported against gravity, existing at boundaries between magnetic polarities. They can persist in the corona for several months before erupting.

1. -Solar prominence
Solar Prominence is a huge loop of solar material extending
from the sun. Again, these are several miles wide and tall.
A prominence is a large bright feature extending outward from the Sun's surface, often
in a loop configuration. Prominences are anchored to the Sun's surface in the
photosphere, and extend outwards into the Sun's corona. While the corona consists of
extremely hot ionized gases, known as plasma, which do not emit much visible light,
prominences contain much cooler plasma, similar in composition to that of the
chromosphere. A prominence forms over timescales of about a day, and stable
prominences may persist in the corona for several months. Some prominences break apart
and give rise to coronal mass ejections.A typical prominence extends over many
thousands of kilometers; the largest observed by SOHO was seen in 1997 and was some
350,000 km (216,000 miles) long [1]
- some 28 times the diameter of the Earth. The mass
contained within a prominence is typically of the order of 100 billion tonnes of
material.If a prominence occurs on the disc of the sun it appears darker than its
background (due to the lower temperature of the plasma). These are referred to as solar
filaments.
Solar activity » Prominences
Prominences are among the most beautiful of solar phenomena. They are the analogues
of clouds in the Earth’s atmosphere, but they are supported by magnetic fields, rather
than by thermal currents as clouds are. Because the plasma of ions and electrons that
makes up the solar atmosphere cannot cross magnetic field lines in regions of horizontal
magnetic fields, material is supported against gravity. This occurs at the boundaries
between one magnetic polarity and its opposite, where the connecting field lines reverse
direction. Thus, prominences are reliable indicators of sharp field transitions. (The fields
are either up or down; tilted fields are unusual.) As with the chromosphere, prominences
are transparent in white light and, except during total eclipses, must be viewed in Hα. At
eclipse the red Hα line lends a beautiful pink to the prominences visible at totality. The
density of prominences is much lower than that of the photosphere; there are few
collisions to generate radiation. Prominences absorb radiation from below and emit it in
all directions, a process called pure scattering. The visible light emitted toward Earth at
the limb has been removed from the upward beam, so the prominences appear dark

2. against the disk. But the sky is darker still, so they appear bright against the sky. The
temperature of prominences is 5,000–50,000 K. In the past, when radiative processes
were not well understood, prominences seen dark against the disk were called filaments.
There are two basic types of prominences: (1) quiescent, or long-lived, and (2) transient.
The former are associated with large-scale magnetic fields, marking the boundaries of
unipolar magnetic regions or sunspot groups. Because the large unipolar plates are long-
lived, the quiescent prominences are as well. These prominences may have varied forms
—hedgerows, suspended clouds, or funnels—but they always take the form of two-
dimensional suspended sheets. Stable filaments often become unstable and erupt, but they
may also just fade away. Few quiescent prominences live more than a few days, but new
ones may form on the magnetic boundary.The equilibrium of the longer lived
prominences is indeed curious. While one might expect them to eventually fall down,
they always erupt upwards. This is because all unattached magnetic fields have a
tremendous buoyancy and attempt to leave the Sun. When they do escape, they produce
not only a splendid sight but also a transient shock wave in the corona called a coronal
mass ejection, which can cause important geomagnetic effects.Transient prominences are
an integral part of solar activity. Sprays are the disorganized mass of material ejected by a
flare. Surges are collimated streams of ejecta connected with small flares. In both cases
some of the material returns to the surface. Loop prominences are the aftermath of flares.
In the flare process a barrage of electrons heats the surface to millions of degrees and a
hot (more than 10 million K), dense coronal cloud forms. This emits very strongly,
cooling the material, which then, since there is no magnetic support, descends to the
surface in elegant loops, following the magnetic lines of force.The spectrum of
prominences seen against the sky reflects their history. Quiescent prominences have no
source of energy except some conduction from the corona, which is a small effect
because heat cannot cross the field lines. The spectrum is similar to the chromosphere,
except in the chromosphere, spicule motions produce broad lines, while the prominence
lines are quite narrow until they erupt, indicating little internal motion. Surges and sprays
also usually display low excitation because they are often cool material seized and
ejected by magnetic forces. Loop prominences, on the other hand, are cooling from a
very hot post-flare coronal condensation and have just become visible. Thus, they show
high-excitation lines of ionized helium and strong ultraviolet emission, as befits a gas at
30,000 to 100,000 K.
Image gallery
Solar Prominence
Detached Solar
A limb's flare and after-
flare prominence
Major eruptive
prominence (Skylab1973)

3. Prominence