3,823 research outputs found
Guided flows in coronal magnetic flux tubes
There is evidence for coronal plasma flows to break down into fragments and
to be laminar. We investigate this effect by modeling flows confined along
magnetic channels. We consider a full MHD model of a solar atmosphere box with
a dipole magnetic field. We compare the propagation of a cylindrical flow
perfectly aligned to the field to that of another one with a slight
misalignment. We assume a flow speed of 200 km/s, and an ambient magnetic field
of 30 G. We find that while the aligned flow maintains its cylindrical symmetry
while it travels along the magnetic tube, the misaligned one is rapidly
squashed on one side, becoming laminar and eventually fragmented because of the
interaction and backreaction of the magnetic field. This model could explain an
observation of erupted fragments that fall back as thin and elongated strands
and end up onto the solar surface in a hedge-like configuration, made by the
Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory. The
initial alignment of plasma flow plays an important role in determining the
possible laminar structure and fragmentation of flows while they travel along
magnetic channels.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication, movies available upon
request to the first autho
Experiments with a fully instrumented split Stirling cryocooler
A practical model that can be used to accurately size and optimally split stirling cryocoolers is discussed. A practical model that could be used to extrapolate existing designs to meet different specifications was developed. However, to do this detailed knowledge of the dynamic operating parameters of this type of cryocooler is required. The first stage is to fully instrument a refrigerator so that various dynamic parameters can be measured. The second stage involves the application of these measurements to the design and optimization of a range of coolers
Bright hot impacts by erupted fragments falling back on the Sun: magnetic channelling
Dense plasma fragments were observed to fall back on the solar surface by the
Solar Dynamics Observatory after an eruption on 7 June 2011, producing strong
EUV brightenings. Previous studies investigated impacts in regions of weak
magnetic field. Here we model the km/s impact of fragments
channelled by the magnetic field close to active regions. In the observations,
the magnetic channel brightens before the fragment impact. We use a 3D-MHD
model of spherical blobs downfalling in a magnetized atmosphere. The blob
parameters are constrained from the observation. We run numerical simulations
with different ambient density and magnetic field intensity. We compare the
model emission in the 171\AA~ channel of the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly with
the observed one. We find that a model of downfall channelled in a MK
coronal loop confined by a magnetic field of G, best explains
qualitatively and quantitatively the observed evolution. The blobs are highly
deformed, further fragmented, when the ram pressure becomes comparable to the
local magnetic pressure and they are deviated to be channelled by the field,
because of the differential stress applied by the perturbed magnetic field.
Ahead of them, in the relatively dense coronal medium, shock fronts propagate,
heat and brighten the channel between the cold falling plasma and the solar
surface. This study shows a new mechanism which brightens downflows channelled
by the magnetic field, such as in accreting young stars, and also works as a
probe of the ambient atmosphere, providing information about the local plasma
density and magnetic field.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figure
Thermal structure of hot non-flaring corona from Hinode/EIS
In previous studies a very hot plasma component has been diagnosed in solar
active regions through the images in three different narrow-band channels of
SDO/AIA. This diagnostic from EUV imaging data has also been supported by the
matching morphology of the emission in the hot Ca XVII line, as observed with
Hinode/EIS. This evidence is debated because of unknown distribution of the
emission measure along the line of sight. Here we investigate in detail the
thermal distribution of one of such regions using EUV spectroscopic data. In an
active region observed with SDO/AIA, Hinode/EIS and XRT, we select a subregion
with a very hot plasma component and another cooler one for comparison. The
average spectrum is extracted for both, and 14 intense lines are selected for
analysis, that probe the 5.5 < log T < 7 temperature range uniformly. From
these lines the emission measure distributions are reconstructed with the MCMC
method. Results are cross-checked with comparison of the two subregions, with a
different inversion method, with the morphology of the images, and with the
addition of fluxes measured with from narrow and broad-band imagers. We find
that, whereas the cool region has a flat and featureless distribution that
drops at temperature log T >= 6.3, the distribution of the hot region shows a
well-defined peak at log T = 6.6 and gradually decreasing trends on both sides,
thus supporting the very hot nature of the hot component diagnosed with
imagers. The other cross-checks are consistent with this result. This study
provides a completion of the analysis of active region components, and the
resulting scenario supports the presence of a minor very hot plasma component
in the core, with temperatures log T > 6.6.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publicatio
Bright hot impacts by erupted fragments falling back on the Sun: UV redshifts in stellar accretion
A solar eruption after a flare on 7 Jun 2011 produced EUV-bright impacts of
fallbacks far from the eruption site, observed with the Solar Dynamics
Observatory. These impacts can be taken as a template for the impact of stellar
accretion flows. Broad red-shifted UV lines have been commonly observed in
young accreting stars. Here we study the emission from the impacts in the
Atmospheric Imaging Assembly's UV channels and compare the inferred velocity
distribution to stellar observations. We model the impacts with 2D hydrodynamic
simulations. We find that the localised UV 1600A emission and its timing with
respect to the EUV emission can be explained by the impact of a cloud of
fragments. The first impacts produce strong initial upflows. The following
fragments are hit and shocked by these upflows. The UV emission comes mostly
from the shocked front shell of the fragments while they are still falling, and
is therefore redshifted when observed from above. The EUV emission instead
continues from the hot surface layer that is fed by the impacts. Fragmented
accretion can therefore explain broad redshifted UV lines (e.g. C IV 1550A) to
speeds around 400 km/s observed in accreting young stellar objects.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures (movies available upon request), accepted for
publicatio
X-Raying the Dark Side of Venus - Scatter from Venus Magnetotail?
This work analyzes the X-ray, EUV and UV emission apparently coming from the
Earth-facing (dark) side of Venus as observed with Hinode/XRT and SDO/AIA
during a transit across the solar disk occurred in 2012. We have measured
significant X-Ray, EUV and UV flux from Venus dark side. As a check we have
also analyzed a Mercury transit across the solar disk, observed with Hinode/XRT
in 2006. We have used the latest version of the Hinode/XRT Point Spread
Function (PSF) to deconvolve Venus and Mercury X-ray images, in order to remove
possible instrumental scattering. Even after deconvolution, the flux from Venus
shadow remains significant while in the case of Mercury it becomes negligible.
Since stray-light contamination affects the XRT Ti-poly filter data from the
Venus transit in 2012, we performed the same analysis with XRT Al-mesh filter
data, which is not affected by the light leak. Even the Al-mesh filter data
show residual flux. We have also found significant EUV (304 A, 193 A, 335 A)
and UV (1700 A) flux in Venus shadow, as measured with SDO/AIA. The EUV
emission from Venus dark side is reduced when appropriate deconvolution methods
are applied; the emission remains significant, however. The light curves of the
average flux of the shadow in the X-ray, EUV, and UV bands appear different as
Venus crosses the solar disk, but in any of them the flux is, at any time,
approximately proportional to the average flux in a ring surrounding Venus, and
therefore proportional to the average flux of the solar regions around Venus
obscuring disk line of sight. The proportionality factor depends on the band.
This phenomenon has no clear origin; we suggest it may be due to scatter
occurring in the very long magnetotail of Venus.Comment: This paper has been accepted in The Astrophysical Journa
Multi-Thread Hydrodynamic Modeling of a Solar Flare
Past hydrodynamic simulations have been able to reproduce the high
temperatures and densities characteristic of solar flares. These simulations,
however, have not been able to account for the slow decay of the observed flare
emission or the absence of blueshifts in high spectral resolution line
profiles. Recent work has suggested that modeling a flare as an sequence of
independently heated threads instead of as a single loop may resolve the
discrepancies between the simulations and observations. In this paper we
present a method for computing multi-thread, time-dependent hydrodynamic
simulations of solar flares and apply it to observations of the Masuda flare of
1992 January 13. We show that it is possible to reproduce the temporal
evolution of high temperature thermal flare plasma observed with the
instruments on the \textit{GOES} and \textit{Yohkoh} satellites. The results
from these simulations suggest that the heating time-scale for a individual
thread is on the order of 200 s. Significantly shorter heating time scales (20
s) lead to very high temperatures and are inconsistent with the emission
observed by \textit{Yohkoh}.Comment: Submitted to Ap
Temperature Diagnostics of a Solar Active Region Using a Single-Filter Observation of Hinode/XRT
Broad-band X-ray observations can provide limited temperature diagnostics through filter ratios. A high cadence observation of an active region made with a single Hinode/XRT filter allows us to use an alternative approach in which we measure the time fluctuations of the pixel count rate and use the variance as temperature proxy. We show the results and discuss limitations of method
X-ray Flares of EV Lac: Statistics, Spectra, Diagnostics
We study the spectral and temporal behavior of X-ray flares from the active
M-dwarf EV Lac in 200 ks of exposure with the Chandra/HETGS. We derive flare
parameters by fitting an empirical function which characterizes the amplitude,
shape, and scale. The flares range from very short (<1 ks) to long (10 ks)
duration events with a range of shapes and amplitudes for all durations. We
extract spectra for composite flares to study their mean evolution and to
compare flares of different lengths. Evolution of spectral features in the
density-temperature plane shows probable sustained heating. The short flares
are significantly hotter than the longer flares. We determined an upper limit
to the Fe K fluorescent flux, the best fit value being close to what is
expected for compact loops.Comment: 9 pages; 9 figures; latex/emulateapj style; Submitted to The
Astrophysical Journa
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