Multicomponent He | 10 830 Å profiles in an active filament

Aims. We present new spectropolarimetric observations of the chromospheric He I 10 830 angstrom multiplet observed in a filament during its phase of activity. Methods. The data were recorded with the new Tenerife Infrared Polarimeter (TIP-II) at the German Vacuum Tower Telescope (VTT) on 2005 May 18. We inverted the He Stokes profiles using multiple atmospheric components. Results. The observed He Stokes profiles display a remarkably wide variety of shapes. Most of the profiles show very broad Stokes I absorptions and complex and spatially variable Stokes V signatures. The inversion of the profiles shows evidence of different atmospheric blue-and redshifted components of the He I lines within the resolution element (similar to 1 arcsec), with supersonic velocities of up to similar to 100 km s(-1). Up to five different atmospheric components are found in the same profile. We show that even these complex profiles can be reliably inverted.