Prominences are amazing objects of great beauty whose formation, basic structure and eruption represent one of the basic unsolved problems in Solar Physics. It is now 14 years since the last book on prominences appeared (Tandberg-Hanssen, 1974), during which time much progress in our knowledge of the physics of prominences has been made, and so the time is ripe for a new text book which it is hoped will be a helpful summary of the subject for students, postdocs and solar researchers. Indeed, the last few years has seen an upsurge in interest in prominences due to high resolution ground-and space-based observations and advances in theory. For example, an IAU colloquium was held in Oslo (Jensen et al, 1978), a Solar Maximum Mission Workshop took place at Goddard Space Right Center (poland, 1986), an IAU Colloquium is planned in Yugoslavia in September 1989 in prominences and it is expected that the SOHO satellite will be a further stimulus to prominence research. In November 1987 a Workshop on the Dynamics and Structure of Solar Prominences was held in Palma Mallorca at the invitation of Jose Luis Ballester with the aim of bringing observers and theorists together and having plenty of time for in-depth discussions of the basic physics of promi nences.

In this dissertation, the structure, dynamics and evolution of two quiescent prominences were studied. Quiescent prominences are large structures and mainly associated with the quiet Sun region. For the analysis, the high spatial and temporal cadence data from the Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO), and the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) were used. The observations from two different directions were combined and the prominence in 3D were studied. In the study of polar crown prominence, the prominence flows on limb were mainly investigated and its association with on-disk brightenings were found. The merging of diffused active region flux in the already formed chain of prominence caused the several brightenings in the filament channel and also injected the plasma upward with an average velocity of 15 km/s. In another study, the triggering mechanism of a quiescent tornado-like prominence was investigated. Flares from the neighboring active region triggered the tornado-like motions on the top of the prominence. Active region field contracts after the flare which results in the expansion of prominence cavity. The prominence helical magnetic field expands and plasma moves along the field lines which appear as a tornado-like activity. These observational investigations led to the understanding of structure and dynamics of quiescent prominences, which could be useful for theoretical prominence models.

This volume presents the latest research results on solar prominences, including new developments on e.g. chirality, fine structure, magnetism, diagnostic tools and relevant solar plasma physics. In 1875 solar prominences, as seen out of the solar limb, were described by P.A. Secchi in his book Le Soleil as "gigantic pink or peach-flower coloured flames". The development of spectroscopy, coronagraphy and polarimetry brought tremendous observational advances in the twentieth century. The authors present and discuss exciting new challenges (resulting from observations made by space and ground-based telescopes in the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century) concerning the diagnostics of prominences, their formation, their life time and their eruption along with their impact in the heliosphere (including the Earth). The book starts with a general introduction of the prominence “object” with some historical background on observations and instrumentation. In the next chapter, the various forms of prominences are described with a thorough attempt of classification. Their thermodynamic (and velocity) properties are then derived with emphasis on the methods (and their limits) used. This goes from the simplest optically thin case to the heavy radiative treatment of plasmas out of local thermodynamic equilibrium. The following chapters are devoted to the magnetic field measurements and indirect derivation. A new branch of diagnostic tools, the seismology, is presented along with some MHD basics. This allows to better understand the propagation of waves, the energy and force equilibria. Both small-scale and large-scale studies and their relationship are presented. The importance of the newly discovered cavities is stressed in the context of prominence destabilization. The issues of prominence formation and eruption, their connection with flares and Coronal Mass Ejections and their impact on the Earth are addressed on the basis of the latest results. Finally, an exciting new area of research is unveiled with the newly discovered evidence of similar manifestations in the Universe and their possible impact on the habitability of exoplanets. References to the basic physics (where necessary) are provided and the proposed web sites addresses will allow the reader to load exciting movies. The book is aimed at advanced students in astrophysics, post-graduates, solar physicists and more generally astrophysicists. Amateurs will enjoy the many new images which go with the text.

The original plans for a meeting to celebrate the second centenary of the As tronomical Observatory of Palermo were for a celebration with a double character. The gathering was to have both a historical character, appropriate for a bicenten nial, and a technical character, to note and chronicle the new phase of the history of the Observatory, which has prospered in parallel with the development of this fairly recent topic in astronomical research, the physics of stellar and solar coronae. After the untimely death of the Observatory's Director, Giuseppe S. Vaiana (Pippo to his many friends), a number of colleagues and friends insisted that the celebration should nevertheless be held and should be dedicated to this farsighted scientist who stimulated the development of coronal physics from the early x-ray observations of the solar corona to the recognition of coronae as an observable feature of nearly all stars. This memorial dedication did not change the character of the meeting, which was held in Palermo from 22 to 26 June 1992; as his contributions are very alive in the papers presented at the meeting and collected here, Pippo Vaiana has certainly achieved his place in the history of Astronomy.

From the reviews: "Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts has appeared in semi-annual volumes since 1969 and it has already become one of the fundemental publications in the fields of astronomy, astrophysics and neighbouring sciences. It is the most important English-language abstracting journal in the mentioned branches. ...The abstracts are classified under more than a hundred subject categories, thus permitting a quick survey of the whole extended material. The AAA is a valuable and important publication for all students and scientists working in the fields of astronomy and related sciences. As such it represents a necessary ingredient of any astronomical library all over the world." Space Science Review# "Dividing the whole field plus related subjects into 108 categories, each work is numbered and most are accompanied by brief abstracts. Fairly comprehensive cross-referencing links relevant papers to more than one category, and exhaustive author and subject indices are to be found at the back, making the catalogues easy to use. The series appears to be so complete in its coverage and always less than a year out of date that I shall certainly have to make a little more space on those shelves for future volumes." The Observatory Magazine#

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