Radiative Transfer in Solar Prominences: An Overview and Current Trends

Abstract We review the development of the non-LTE (i.e. departures from Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium) radiative-transfer modeling of cool coronal condensations, namely solar prominences. The period considered covers five decades, but we particularly focus on current trends and advancements. Our main goal is to critically discuss various issues of the model geometries and how the assumed geometry couples to the specification of the incident illumination from the surrounding atmosphere. We start with initial one-dimensional (1D) models and continue with the discussion of 2D models and the current 3D approaches. A special attention is devoted to highly heterogeneous prominence structures and to fast-moving eruptive prominences currently well observed by the Metis and EUI instruments onboard Solar Orbiter and by the ASPIICS large coronagraph onboard the Proba-3 formation-flight mission.