Active region evolution in the chromosphere and transtition region

Images in the C IV 1548 A and the Si II 1526 S lines taken with the ultraviolet spectrometer polarimeter (UVSP) instrument on board the Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) satellite were combined into movies showing the evolution of active regions and the neighboring supergranulation over several days. The data sets generally consist of 240 by 240 arc second rasters with 3 arc second pixels taken one per orbit (about every 90 minutes). The images are projected on a latitude/longitude grid to remove the forshortening as the region rotates across the solar disk and further processed to remove jitter and gain variations. Movies were made with and without differential rotation. Although there are occasional missing orbits, these series do not suffer from the long nighttime gaps that occur in observations taken at a single groundbased observatory and are excellent for studying changes on time scales of several hours. The longest sequence processed to date runs from 20 Oct. 1980 to 25 Oct. 1980. This was taken during an SMM flare buildup study on AR 2744. Several shorter sequences taken in 1980 and 1984 will also be shown. The results will be presented on a video disk which can be interactively controlled to view the movies

Semidefinite code bounds based on quadruple distances

Let $A(n,d)$ be the maximum number of $0,1$ words of length $n$, any two having Hamming distance at least $d$. We prove $A(20,8)=256$, which implies that the quadruply shortened Golay code is optimal. Moreover, we show $A(18,6)\leq 673$, $A(19,6)\leq 1237$, $A(20,6)\leq 2279$, $A(23,6)\leq 13674$, $A(19,8)\leq 135$, $A(25,8)\leq 5421$, $A(26,8)\leq 9275$, $A(21,10)\leq 47$, $A(22,10)\leq 84$, $A(24,10)\leq 268$, $A(25,10)\leq 466$, $A(26,10)\leq 836$, $A(27,10)\leq 1585$, $A(25,12)\leq 55$, and $A(26,12)\leq 96$. The method is based on the positive semidefiniteness of matrices derived from quadruples of words. This can be put as constraint in a semidefinite program, whose optimum value is an upper bound for $A(n,d)$. The order of the matrices involved is huge. However, the semidefinite program is highly symmetric, by which its feasible region can be restricted to the algebra of matrices invariant under this symmetry. By block diagonalizing this algebra, the order of the matrices will be reduced so as to make the program solvable with semidefinite programming software in the above range of values of $n$ and $d$.Comment: 15 page

Using Coronal Loops to Reconstruct the Magnetic Field of an Active Region Before and After a Major Flare

The shapes of solar coronal loops are sensitive to the presence of electrical currents that are the carriers of the nonpotential energy available for impulsive activity. We use this information in a new method for modeling the coronal magnetic field of AR 11158 as a nonlinear force-free field (NLFFF). The observations used are coronal images around time of major flare activity on 2011/02/15, together with the surface line-of-sight magnetic field measurements. The data are from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager and Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (HMI and AIA, respectively) onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The model fields are constrained to approximate the coronal loop configurations as closely as possible, while also subject to the force-free constraints. The method does not use transverse photospheric magnetic field components as input, and is thereby distinct from methods for modeling NLFFFs based on photospheric vector magnetograms. We validate the method using observations of AR 11158 at a time well before major flaring, and subsequently review the field evolution just prior to and following an X2.2 flare and associated eruption. The models indicate that the energy released during the instability is about $1\times10^{32}$ erg, consistent with what is needed to power such a large eruptive flare. Immediately prior to the eruption the model field contains a compact sigmoid bundle of twisted flux that is not present in the post-eruption models, which is consistent with the observations. The core of that model structure is twisted by $\approx0.9$ full turns about its axis.Comment: ApJ, in pres

Solar Coronal Structures and Stray Light in TRACE

Using the 2004 Venus transit of the Sun to constrain a semi-empirical point-spread function for the TRACE EUV solar telescope, we have measured the effect of stray light in that telescope. We find that 43% of 171A EUV light that enters TRACE is scattered, either through diffraction off the entrance filter grid or through other nonspecular effects. We carry this result forward, via known-PSF deconvolution of TRACE images, to identify its effect on analysis of TRACE data. Known-PSF deconvolution by this derived PSF greatly reduces the effect of visible haze in the TRACE 171A images, enhances bright features, and reveals that the smooth background component of the corona is considerably less bright (and hence much more rarefied) than commonly supposed. Deconvolution reveals that some prior conlclusions about the Sun appear to have been based on stray light in the images. In particular, the diffuse background "quiet corona" becomes consistent with hydrostatic support of the coronal plasma; feature contrast is greatly increased, possibly affecting derived parameters such as the form of the coronal heating function; and essentially all existing differential emission measure studies of small features appear to be affected by contamination from nearby features. We speculate on further implications of stray light for interpretation of EUV images from TRACE and similar instruments, and advocate deconvolution as a standard tool for image analysis with future instruments such as SDO/AIA.Comment: Accepted by APJ; v2 reformatted to single-column format for online readabilit

A stellar view of the Sun

This invited memoir looks back on my scientific career that straddles the solar and stellar branches of astrophysics, with sprinklings of historical context and personal opinion. Except for a description of my life up to my Ph.D. phase, the structure is thematic rather than purely chronological, focusing on those topics that I worked on throughout substantial parts of my life: stars like the Sun and the Sun-as-a-star, surface field evolution, coronal structure and dynamics, heliophysics education, and space weather. Luck and a broadly inquisitive frame of mind shaped a fortunate life on two continents, taking me from one amazing mentor, colleague, and friend to another, working in stimulating settings to interpret data from state-of-the-art space observatories.Comment: Invited memoir, accepted for publication in Solar Physic

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

Convective Dynamos and the Minimum X-ray Flux in Main Sequence Stars

The objective of this paper is to investigate whether a convective dynamo can account quantitatively for the observed lower limit of X-ray surface flux in solar-type main sequence stars. Our approach is to use 3D numerical simulations of a turbulent dynamo driven by convection to characterize the dynamic behavior, magnetic field strengths, and filling factors in a non-rotating stratified medium, and to predict these magnetic properties at the surface of cool stars. We use simple applications of stellar structure theory for the convective envelopes of main-sequence stars to scale our simulations to the outer layers of stars in the F0--M0 spectral range, which allows us to estimate the unsigned magnetic flux on the surface of non-rotating reference stars. With these estimates we use the recent results of \citet{Pevtsov03} to predict the level of X-ray emission from such a turbulent dynamo, and find that our results compare well with observed lower limits of surface X-ray flux. If we scale our predicted X-ray fluxes to \ion{Mg}{2} fluxes we also find good agreement with the observed lower limit of chromospheric emission in K dwarfs. This suggests that dynamo action from a convecting, non-rotating plasma is a viable alternative to acoustic heating models as an explanation for the basal emission level seen in chromospheric, transition region, and coronal diagnostics from late-type stars.Comment: ApJ, accepted, 30 pages with 7 figure