For the past three years an international group of solar astronomers has been collaborating in a broad study of the structure and formation of solar filaments and prominences. The group calls itself the "Prom" for obvious reasons, and is led by Sara Martin (Helio Research Inc.) formerly of Big Bear Observatory. The group includes Martin, Oddbjorn Engvold (Oslo), Eric Priest (Saint Andrews),Vic Gaizauskas (Ottawa), Terry Forbes (New Hampshire), Aad Van Ballegooijen (Harvard), Karen Harvey (Solar Research Corp.) and Jack Zirker (NSO). The mixture of observers and theorists has turned out to be effective in pursuing a program of focussed research, as its lengthy list of publications testifies.
A subset of the group held its eighth meeting at Sunspot over the weekend of 1-3 November. Vic Gaizauskas presented a review on the formation of filament channels, and Aad Van Ballegooijen gave an update on global modelling of the hemispheric regularities of filaments and short reports on recent collaborative ground-based and space-based observing programs. Yuri Letvinenko, a colleague of Forbes, reported on his work on magnetic reconnection, an essential process in the formation of filament channels.
The group plans another meeting at Sunspot next March.
Jack Zirker