4,331 research outputs found
Micro-Sigmoids as Progenitors of Coronal Jets - Is Eruptive Activity Self-Similarly Multi-Scaled?
Observations from the X-ray telescope (XRT) on Hinode are used to study the
nature of X-ray bright points, sources of coronal jets. Several jet events in
the coronal holes are found to erupt from small-scale, S-shaped bright regions.
This finding suggests that coronal micro-sigmoids may well be progenitors of
coronal jets. Moreover, the presence of these structures may explain numerous
observed characteristics of jets such as helical structures, apparent
transverse motions, and shapes. In analogy to large-scale sigmoids giving rise
to coronal mass ejections (CMEs), a promising future task would perhaps be to
investigate whether solar eruptive activity, from coronal jets to CMEs, is
self-similar in terms of properties and instability mechanisms.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl
Evidence For Mixed Helicity in Erupting Filaments
Erupting filaments are sometimes observed to undergo a rotation about the
vertical direction as they rise. This rotation of the filament axis is
generally interpreted as a conversion of twist into writhe in a kink-unstable
magnetic flux rope. Consistent with this interpretation, the rotation is
usually found to be clockwise (as viewed from above) if the post-eruption
arcade has right-handed helicity, but counterclockwise if it has left-handed
helicity. Here, we describe two non--active-region filament events recorded
with the Extreme-Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) on the {\it Solar and
Heliospheric Observatory} ({\it SOHO}), in which the sense of rotation appears
to be opposite to that expected from the helicity of the post-event arcade.
Based on these observations, we suggest that the rotation of the filament axis
is in general determined by the net helicity of the erupting system, and that
the axially aligned core of the filament can have the opposite helicity sign to
the surrounding field. In most cases, the surrounding field provides the main
contribution to the net helicity. In the events reported here, however, the
helicity associated with the filament ``barbs'' is opposite in sign to and
dominates that of the overlying arcade.Comment: ApJ, accepte
Towards Mapping Competencies through Learning Analytics: Real-time Competency Assessment for Career Direction through Interactive Simulation
Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 201, pp. 1-13
From Metastable to Coherent Sets â time-discretization schemes
Given a time-dependent stochastic process with trajectories x(t) in a space \Omega, there may be sets such that the corresponding trajectories only very rarely cross the boundaries of these sets. We can analyze such a process in terms of metastability or coherence. Metastable sets M are defined in space M \subset \Omega, coherent sets M(t) \subset \Omega are defined in space and time. Hence, if we extend the space \Omega by the time-variable t, coherent sets are metastable sets in \Omega \times [0,\infty). This relation can be exploited, because there already exist spectral algorithms for the identification of metastable sets. In this article we show that these well-established spectral algorithms (like PCCA+) also identify coherent sets of non-autonomous dynamical systems. For the identification of coherent sets, one has to compute a discretization (a matrix T) of the transfer operator of the process using a space-time-discretization scheme. The article gives an overview about different time-discretization schemes and shows their applicability in two different fields of application
The role of the spin in quasiparticle interference
Quasiparticle interference patterns measured by scanning tunneling microscopy
(STM) can be used to study the local electronic structure of metal surfaces and
high temperature superconductors. Here, we show that even in non-magnetic
systems the spin of the quasiparticles can have a profound effect on the
interference patterns. On Bi(110), where the surface state bands are not
spin-degenerate, the patterns are not related to the dispersion of the
electronic states in a simple way. In fact, the features which are expected for
the spin-independent situation are absent and the observed interference
patterns can only be interpreted by taking spin-conserving scattering events
into account.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Role of the electric field in surface electron dynamics above the vacuum level
Scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) is used to study the dynamics of hot
electrons trapped on a Cu(100) surface in field emission resonances (FER) above
the vacuum level. Differential conductance maps show isotropic electron
interference wave patterns around defects whenever their energy lies within a
surface projected band gap. Their Fourier analysis reveals a broad wave vector
distribution, interpreted as due to the lateral acceleration of hot electrons
in the inhomogeneous tip-induced potential. A line-shape analysis of the
characteristic constant-current conductance spectra permits to establish the
relation between apparent width of peaks and intrinsic line-width of FERs, as
well as the identification of the different broadening mechanisms.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
The Eruption from a Sigmoidal Solar Active Region on 2005 May 13
This paper presents a multiwavelength study of the M8.0 flare and its
associated fast halo CME that originated from a bipolar active region NOAA
10759 on 2005 May 13. The source active region has a conspicuous sigmoid
structure at TRACE 171 A channel as well as in the SXI soft X-ray images, and
we mainly concern ourselves with the detailed process of the sigmoid eruption
as evidenced by the multiwavelength data ranging from Halpha, WL, EUV/UV,
radio, and hard X-rays (HXRs). The most important finding is that the flare
brightening starts in the core of the active region earlier than that of the
rising motion of the flux rope. This timing clearly addresses one of the main
issues in the magnetic eruption onset of sigmoid, namely, whether the eruption
is initiated by an internal tether-cutting to allow the flux rope to rise
upward or a flux rope rises due to a loss of equilibrium to later induce tether
cutting below it. Our high time cadence SXI and Halpha data shows that the
first scenario is relevant to this eruption. As other major findings, we have
the RHESSI HXR images showing a change of the HXR source from a confined
footpoint structure to an elongated ribbon-like structure after the flare
maximum, which we relate to the sigmoid-to-arcade evolution. Radio dynamic
spectrum shows a type II precursor that occurred at the time of expansion of
the sigmoid and a drifting pulsating structure in the flare rising phase in
HXR. Finally type II and III bursts are seen at the time of maximum HXR
emission, simultaneous with the maximum reconnection rate derived from the
flare ribbon motion in UV. We interpret these various observed properties with
the runaway tether-cutting model proposed by Moore et al. in 2001.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, The Astrophysical Journal, accepted July, 200
Turbulence in the Solar Atmosphere: Manifestations and Diagnostics via Solar Image Processing
Intermittent magnetohydrodynamical turbulence is most likely at work in the
magnetized solar atmosphere. As a result, an array of scaling and multi-scaling
image-processing techniques can be used to measure the expected
self-organization of solar magnetic fields. While these techniques advance our
understanding of the physical system at work, it is unclear whether they can be
used to predict solar eruptions, thus obtaining a practical significance for
space weather. We address part of this problem by focusing on solar active
regions and by investigating the usefulness of scaling and multi-scaling
image-processing techniques in solar flare prediction. Since solar flares
exhibit spatial and temporal intermittency, we suggest that they are the
products of instabilities subject to a critical threshold in a turbulent
magnetic configuration. The identification of this threshold in scaling and
multi-scaling spectra would then contribute meaningfully to the prediction of
solar flares. We find that the fractal dimension of solar magnetic fields and
their multi-fractal spectrum of generalized correlation dimensions do not have
significant predictive ability. The respective multi-fractal structure
functions and their inertial-range scaling exponents, however, probably provide
some statistical distinguishing features between flaring and non-flaring active
regions. More importantly, the temporal evolution of the above scaling
exponents in flaring active regions probably shows a distinct behavior starting
a few hours prior to a flare and therefore this temporal behavior may be
practically useful in flare prediction. The results of this study need to be
validated by more comprehensive works over a large number of solar active
regions.Comment: 26 pages, 7 figure
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