Civ plasma flow near active region filaments

Selected Civ V ₀ lines (lines separating adjacent regions of strong blue shift and strong red shift) located near the solar limb and oriented parallel to the radius vector from disk center are shown to be closely aligned with H dark filaments in active regions. The filaments, in turn, are known to lie in the vicinity of magnetic neutral lines. The radial orientation of the V ₀ lines minimizes uncertainties in image registration and their location near the limb ensures that the observed fluid motion has major components paralleling V ₀. It follows that the filaments are located at sites of velocity shear, and, by inference, of magnetic shear. For a case in which a given V ₀ line is observed near both east and west limbs, the gradient of Doppler velocity across the V ₀ line reverses sign from one limb to the other as is expected for horizontal steady flow. Thus, the velocity vectors remain fixed with respect to the filament.The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.