Prominence fine structures in a magnetic equilibrium: Two-dimensional models with multilevel radiative transfer

Abstract

In this paper we construct theoretical models for vertical prominence threads which are in magnetohydrostatic (MHS) equilibrium. These models are fully two-dimensional (2D) and take the form of vertically infinite threads hanging in a horizontal magnetic field. A typical example of such a 2D magnetic-dip structure is shown for the case when the central cool parts are surrounded by the prominence-corona transition region (PCTR). We display 2D variations of the pressure, density and temperature. While the pressure variations follow from the MHS equilibrium, the kinetic temperature was specified empirically. As a next step, we have solved the 2D multilevel non-LTE transfer problem in such thread-like structures, in order to predict the spatial variations of the emergent hydrogen spectrum. It is demonstrated that the hydrogen Lyman lines (treated with partial redistribution) show significant spatial variations of the intensity and that an important difference exists between the line profiles emergent along and across the magnetic field lines. We also discuss how these intensity variations compare to recent SOHO/SUMER prominence observations, namely we show the effects of line-profile averaging over the fine-structure threads which are below the instrumental resolution. Finally we make some suggestions for future modelling and observations.