Diagnosing the Prominence-Cavity Connection in the Solar Corona

The energetic equilibrium of the corona is described by a balance of heating, thermal conduction, and radiative cooling. Prominences can be described by the thermal instability of coronal energy balance which leads to the formation of cool condensations. Observationally, the prominence is surrounded by a density depleted elliptical structure known as a cavity. In this dissertation, we use extreme ultraviolet remote sensing observations of the prominence-cavity system to diagnose the static and dynamic properties of these structures. The observations are compared with numerical models for the time-dependent coronal condensation process and the time-independent corona-prominence magnetic field.;To diagnose the density of the cavity, we construct a three-dimensional structural model of the corona. This structural model allows us to synthesize extreme ultraviolet emission in the corona in a way that incorporates the projection effects which arise from the optically thin plasma. This forward model technique is used to constrain a radial density profile simultaneously in the cavity and the streamer. We use a chi2 minimization to find the density model which best matches a density sensitive line ratio (observed with Hinode/Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer) and the white light scattered intensity (observed with Mauna Loa Solar Observatory MK4 coronagraph).;We use extreme ultraviolet spectra and spectral images to diagnose the dynamics of the prominence and the surrounding corona. Based on the doppler shift of extreme ultraviolet coronal emission lines, we find that there are large regions of flowing plasma which appear to occur within cavities. These line of sight flows have speeds of 10 km/s-1 and projected spatial scales of 100 Mm. Using the Solar Dynamics Observatory Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (SDO/AIA) dataset, we observe dynamic emission from the prominence-cavity system. The SDO/AIA dataset observes multiple spectral bandpasses with different temperature sensitivities. Time-dependent changes in the observed emission in these bandpass images represent changes in the thermodynamic properties of the emitting plasma. We find that the coronal region surrounding the prominence exhibits larger intensity variations (over tens of hours of observations) as compared to the streamer region. This variability is particularly strong in the cool coronal emission of the 171A bandpass. We identify the source of this variability as strong brightening events that resemble concave-up loop segments and extend from the cool prominence plasma.;Magnetic field lines are the basic structural building block of the corona. Energy and pressure balance in the corona occur along magnetic field lines. The large-scale extreme ultraviolet emission we observe in the corona is a conglomerate of many coronal loops projected along a line of sight. In order to calculate the plasma properties at a particular point in the corona, we use one-dimensional models for energy and pressure balance along field lines. In order to predict the extreme ultraviolet emission along a particular line of sight, we project these one-dimensional models onto the three-dimensional magnetic configuration provided by a MHD model for the coronal magnetic field.;These results have allowed us to the establish the first comprehensive picture on the magnetic and energetic interaction of the prominence and the cavity. While the originally hypothesis that the cavity supplies mass to the prominence proved inaccurate, we cannot simply say that these structures are not related. Rather our findings suggest that the prominence and the cavity are distinct magnetic substructures that are complementary regions of a larger whole, specifically a magnetic flux rope. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).