Polarimetric Observations and Magnetic Field Determination in Prominences

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Abstract
The magnetic field may be the most important physical parameter in the explanation of the “prominence” phenomenon and it plays a major role in all the theoretical models. Therefore, it is not amazing that a lot of work has been devoted to measuring the magnetic vector. Good reviews of the present state of our knowledge on this topic have already been given by Rust (1972), Smolkov and Bashkirtsev (1973) and Tandberg-Hanssen (1974). In the following, I shall describe only the problems and results which follow from measurements of the magnetic field in the prominence material itself. Data deduced from measurements of the magnetic field in adjacent layers of the solar atmosphere (chromosphere, corona) will be found in other sections of this Colloquium.