4,213 research outputs found
Undercover EUV Solar Jets Observed by the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph
It is well-known that extreme ultraviolet emission emitted at the solar
surface is absorbed by overlying cool plasma. Especially in active regions dark
lanes in EUV images suggest that much of the surface activity is obscured.
Simultaneous observations from IRIS, consisting of UV spectra and slit-jaw
images give vital information with sub-arcsecond spatial resolution on the
dynamics of jets not seen in EUV images. We studied a series of small jets from
recently formed bipole pairs beside the trailing spot of active region 11991,
which occurred on 2014 March 5 from 15:02:21 UT to 17:04:07 UT. There were
collimated outflows with bright roots in the SJI 1400 {\AA} (transition region)
and 2796 {\AA} (upper chromosphere) that were mostly not seen in AIA 304 {\AA}
(transition region) and AIA 171 \AA\ (lower corona) images. The Si IV spectra
show strong blue-wing but no red-wing enhancements in the line profiles of the
ejecta for all recurrent jets indicating outward flows without twists. We see
two types of Mg II line profiles produced by the jets spires: reversed and
non-reversed. Mg II lines remain optically thick but turn into optically thin
in the highly Doppler shifted wings.The energy flux contained in each recurrent
jet is estimated using a velocity differential emission measure technique which
measures the emitting power of the plasma as a function of line-of-sight
velocity. We found that all the recurrent jets release similar energy (10
erg cm s ) toward the corona and the downward component is less
than 3\%.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 6 fiugre
Objective measurement of cough frequency during COPD exacerbation convalescence
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Cough and sputum production are associated with adverse outcomes in COPD and are common during COPD exacerbation (AE-COPD). This study of objective cough monitoring using the Hull Automated Cough Counter and Leicester Cough Monitor software confirms that this system has the ability to detect a significant decrease in cough frequency during AE-COPD convalescence. The ability to detect clinically meaningful change indicates a potential role in home monitoring of COPD patients
EIS/Hinode observations of Doppler flow seen through the 40 arcsec wide slit
The Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (EIS) on board Hinode is the
first solar telescope to obtain wide slit spectral images that can be used for
detecting Doppler flows in transition region and coronal lines on the Sun and
to relate them to their surrounding small scale dynamics. We select EIS lines
covering the temperature range 6x10^4 K to 2x10^6 K that give spectrally pure
images of the Sun with the 40 arcsec slit. In these images Doppler shifts are
seen as horizontal brightenings. Inside the image it is difficult to
distinguish shifts from horizontal structures but emission beyond the image
edge can be unambiguously identified as a line shift in several lines separated
from others on their blue or red side by more than the width of the
spectrometer slit (40 pixels). In the blue wing of He II, we find a large
number of events with properties (size and lifetime) similar to the
well-studied explosive events seen in the ultraviolet spectral range.
Comparison with X-Ray Telescope (XRT) images shows many Doppler shift events at
the footpoints of small X-ray loops. The most spectacular event observed showed
a strong blue shift in transition region and lower corona lines from a small
X-ray spot that lasted less than 7 min. The emission appears to be near a cool
coronal loop connecting an X-ray bright point to an adjacent region of quiet
Sun. The width of the emission implies a line-of-sight velocity of 220 km/s. In
addition, we show an example of an Fe XV shift with a velocity about 120 km/s,
coming from what looks like a narrow loop leg connecting a small X-ray
brightening to a larger region of X-ray emission.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, to be published in Solar Physic
Evidence of photospheric vortex flows at supergranular junctions observed by FG/SOT (Hinode)
Twisting motions of different nature are observed in several layers of the
solar atmosphere. Chromospheric sunspot whorls and rotation of sunspots or even
higher up in the lower corona sigmoids are examples of the large scale twisted
topology of many solar features. Nevertheless, their occurrence at large scale
in the quiet photosphere has not been investigated. The present study reveals
the existence of vortex flows located at the supergranular junctions of the
quiet Sun. We use a 1-hour and a 5-hour time series of the granulation in Blue
continuum and G-band images from FG/SOT to derive the photospheric flows. A
feature tracking technique called Balltracking is performed to track the
granules and reveal the underlying flow fields. In both time series we identify
long-lasting vortex flow located at supergranular junctions. The first vortex
flow lasts at least 1 hour and is ~20-arcsec-wide (~15.5 Mm). The second vortex
flow lasts more than 2 hours and is ~27-arcsec-wide (~21 Mm).Comment: 4 pages, 10 figure
Characterisation of HTSC ceramics from their resistive transition
The resistivity vs. temperature relation in bulk ceramic HTSC under
self-field conditions as well as in weak external magnetic fields is modelled
by local Lorentz force induced fluxon motion with temperature dependent
pinning. A pinning force density and two viscous drag coefficients in
intergrain and intragrain regions, respectively, can be used as characteristic
parameters describing the temperature, current, and external field dependences
of the sample resistance.Comment: 12 pages, LaTeX2e, 6 figures (epsfig), to be published in Supercond.
Sci. and Techno
A Comparison of Ultraviolet, Optical, and X-Ray Imagery of Selected Fields in the Cygnus Loop
During the Astro-1 and Astro-2 Space Shuttle missions in 1990 and 1995, far
ultraviolet (FUV) images of five 40' diameter fields around the rim of the
Cygnus Loop supernova remnant were observed with the Ultraviolet Imaging
Telescope (UIT). These fields sampled a broad range of conditions including
both radiative and nonradiative shocks in various geometries and physical
scales. In these shocks, the UIT B5 band samples predominantly CIV 1550 and the
hydrogen two-photon recombination continuum. Smaller contri- butions are made
by emission lines of HeII 1640 and OIII] 1665. We present these new FUV images
and compare them with optical Halpha and [OIII], and ROSAT HRI X-ray images.
Comparing the UIT images with those from the other bands provides new insights
into the spatial variations and locations of these different types of emission.
By comparing against shock model calculations and published FUV spectroscopy at
select locations, we surmise that resonance scattering in the strong FUV
permitted lines is widespread in the Cygnus Loop, especially in the bright
optical filaments typically selected for observation in most previous studies.Comment: 21 pages with 10 figures. See http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~danforth/uit/
for full-resolution figure
Continuous cough monitoring using ambient sound recording during convalescence from a COPD exacerbation
Purpose Cough is common in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and is associated with frequent exacerbations and increased mortality. Cough increases during acute exacerbations (AE-COPD), representing a possible metric of clinical deterioration. Conventional cough monitors accurately report cough counts over short time periods. We describe a novel monitoring system which we used to record cough continuously for up to 45 days during AE-COPD convalescence. Methods This is a longitudinal, observational study of cough monitoring in AE-COPD patients discharged from a single teaching-hospital. Ambient sound was recorded from two sites in the domestic environment and analysed using novel cough classifier software. For comparison, the validated hybrid HACC/LCM cough monitoring system was used on days 1, 5, 20 and 45. Patients were asked to record symptoms daily using diaries. Results Cough monitoring data were available for 16 subjects with a total of 568 monitored days. Daily cough count fell significantly from mean±SEM 272.7±54.5 on day 1 to 110.9±26.3 on day 9 (p<0.01) before plateauing. The absolute cough count detected by the continuous monitoring system was significantly lower than detected by the hybrid HACC/LCM system but normalised counts strongly correlated (r=0.88, p<0.01) demonstrating an ability to detect trends. Objective cough count and subjective cough scores modestly correlated (r=0.46). Conclusions Cough frequency declines significantly following AE-COPD and the reducing trend can be detected using continuous ambient sound recording and novel cough classifier software. Objective measurement of cough frequency has the potential to enhance our ability to monitor the clinical state in patients with COPD
Break up of returning plasma after the 7 June 2011 filament eruption by Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities
A prominence eruption on 7 June 2011 produced spectacular curtains of plasma
falling through the lower corona. At the solar surface they created an
incredible display of extreme ultraviolet brightenings. The aim is to identify
and analyze some of the local instabilities which produce structure in the
falling plasma. The structures were investigated using SDO/AIA 171A and 193A
images in which the falling plasma appeared dark against the bright coronal
emission. Several instances of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability were
investigated. In two cases the Alfven velocity associated with the dense plasma
could be estimated from the separation of the Rayleigh-Taylor fingers. A second
type of feature, which has the appearance of self-similar branching horns, is
also discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, submitted A&A. Movies are at
http://www.mps.mpg.de/data/outgoing/innes/arcs_movie.avi and
http://www.mps.mpg.de/data/outgoing/innes/horns_movie.av
Explosive events - swirling transition region jets
In this paper, we extend our earlier work to provide additional evidence for
an alternative scenario to explain the nature of so-called `explosive events'.
The bi-directed, fast Doppler motion of explosive events observed
spectroscopically in the transition region emission is classically interpreted
as a pair of bidirectional jets moving upward and downward from a reconnection
site. We discuss the problems of such a model. In our previous work, we focused
basically on the discrepancy of fast Doppler motion without detectable motion
in the image plane. We now suggest an alternative scenario for the explosive
events, based on our observations of spectral line tilts and bifurcated
structure in some events. Both features are indicative of rotational motion in
narrow structures. We explain the bifurcation as the result of rotation of
hollow cylindrical structures and demonstrate that such a sheath model can also
be applied to explain the nature of the puzzling `explosive events'. We find
that the spectral tilt, the lack of apparent motion, the bifurcation, and a
rapidly growing number of direct observations support an alternative scenario
of linear, spicular-sized jets with a strong spinning motion.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Solar Physic
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