35 research outputs found
The power spectrum of solar convection flows from high-resolution observations and 3D simulations
We compare Fourier spectra of photospheric velocity fields from very high
resolution IMaX observations to those from recent 3D numerical
magnetoconvection models. We carry out a proper comparison by synthesizing
spectral lines from the numerical models and then applying to them the adequate
residual instrumental degradation that affects the observational data. Also,
the validity of the usual observational proxies is tested by obtaining
synthetic observations from the numerical boxes and comparing the velocity
proxies to the actual velocity values from the numerical grid.
For the observations, data from the SUNRISE/IMaX instrument with about 120 km
spatial resolution are used, thus allowing the calculation of observational
Fourier spectra well into the subgranular range. For the simulations, we use
four series of runs obtained with the STAGGER code and synthesize the IMaX
spectral line (FeI 5250.2 A) from them. Proxies for the velocity field are
obtained via Dopplergrams (vertical component) and local correlation tracking
(horizontal component).
A very good match between observational and simulated Fourier power spectra
is obtained for the vertical velocity data for scales between 200 km and 6 Mm.
Instead, a clear vertical shift is obtained when the synthetic observations are
not degraded. The match for the horizontal velocity data is much less
impressive because of the inaccuracies of the LCT procedure. Concerning the
internal comparison of the direct velocity values of the numerical boxes with
those from the synthetic observations, a high correlation (0.96) is obtained
for the vertical component when using the velocity values on the
log() = -1 surface in the box. The corresponding Fourier spectra are
near each other. A lower maximum correlation (0.5) is reached (at =
1) for the horizontal velocities as a result of the coarseness of the LCT
procedure.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, accepted in A&
Twisting solar coronal jet launched at the boundary of an active region
A broad jet was observed in a weak magnetic field area at the edge of active
region NOAA 11106. The peculiar shape and magnetic environment of the broad jet
raised the question of whether it was created by the same physical processes of
previously studied jets with reconnection occurring high in the corona. We
carried out a multi-wavelength analysis using the EUV images from the
Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) and magnetic fields from the Helioseismic
and Magnetic Imager (HMI) both on-board the SDO satellite. The jet consisted of
many different threads that expanded in around 10 minutes to about 100 Mm in
length, with the bright features in later threads moving faster than in the
early ones, reaching a maximum speed of about 200 km s^{-1}. Time-slice
analysis revealed a striped pattern of dark and bright strands propagating
along the jet, along with apparent damped oscillations across the jet. This is
suggestive of a (un)twisting motion in the jet, possibly an Alfven wave. A
topological analysis of an extrapolated field was performed. Bald patches in
field lines, low-altitude flux ropes, diverging flow patterns, and a null point
were identified at the basis of the jet. Unlike classical lambda or
Eiffel-tower shaped jets that appear to be caused by reconnection in current
sheets containing null points, reconnection in regions containing bald patches
seems to be crucial in triggering the present jet. There is no observational
evidence that the flux ropes detected in the topological analysis were actually
being ejected themselves, as occurs in the violent phase of blowout jets;
instead, the jet itself may have gained the twist of the flux rope(s) through
reconnection. This event may represent a class of jets different from the
classical quiescent or blowout jets, but to reach that conclusion, more
observational and theoretical work is necessary.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Comparison of the thin flux tube approximation with 3D MHD simulations
The structure and dynamics of small vertical photospheric magnetic flux
concentrations has been often treated in the framework of an approximation
based upon a low-order truncation of the Taylor expansions of all quantities in
the horizontal direction, together with the assumption of instantaneous total
pressure balance at the boundary to the non-magnetic external medium. Formally,
such an approximation is justified if the diameter of the structure (a flux
tube or a flux sheet) is small compared to all other relevant length scales
(scale height, radius of curvature, wavelength, etc.). The advent of realistic
3D radiative MHD simulations opens the possibility of checking the consistency
of the approximation with the properties of the flux concentrations that form
in the course of a simulation.
We carry out a comparative analysis between the thin flux tube/sheet models
and flux concentrations formed in a 3D radiation-MHD simulation. We compare the
distribution of the vertical and horizontal components of the magnetic field in
a 3D MHD simulation with the field distribution in the case of the thin flux
tube/sheet approximation. We also consider the total (gas plus magnetic)
pressure in the MHD simulation box. Flux concentrations with
super-equipartition fields are reasonably well reproduced by the second-order
thin flux tube/sheet approximation. The differences between approximation and
simulation are due to the asymmetry and the dynamics of the simulated
structures
Nonlinear force-free modelling: influence of inaccuracies in the measured magnetic vector
Context: Solar magnetic fields are regularly extrapolated into the corona
starting from photospheric magnetic measurements that can suffer from
significant uncertainties. Aims: Here we study how inaccuracies introduced into
the maps of the photospheric magnetic vector from the inversion of ideal and
noisy Stokes parameters influence the extrapolation of nonlinear force-free
magnetic fields. Methods: We compute nonlinear force-free magnetic fields based
on simulated vector magnetograms, which have been produced by the inversion of
Stokes profiles, computed froma 3-D radiation MHD simulation snapshot. These
extrapolations are compared with extrapolations starting directly from the
field in the MHD simulations, which is our reference. We investigate how line
formation and instrumental effects such as noise, limited spatial resolution
and the effect of employing a filter instrument influence the resulting
magnetic field structure. The comparison is done qualitatively by visual
inspection of the magnetic field distribution and quantitatively by different
metrics. Results: The reconstructed field is most accurate if ideal Stokes data
are inverted and becomes less accurate if instrumental effects and noise are
included. The results demonstrate that the non-linear force-free field
extrapolation method tested here is relatively insensitive to the effects of
noise in measured polarization spectra at levels consistent with present-day
instruments. Conclusions heading: Our results show that we can reconstruct the
coronal magnetic field as a nonlinear force-free field from realistic
photospheric measurements with an accuracy of a few percent, at least in the
absence of sunspots.Comment: A&A, accepted, 9 Pages, 4 Figure
The 3D structure of an active region filament as extrapolated from photospheric and chromospheric observations
The 3D structure of an active region (AR) filament is studied using nonlinear
force-free field (NLFFF) extrapolations based on simultaneous observations at a
photospheric and a chromospheric height. To that end, we used the Si I 10827
\AA\ line and the He I 10830 \AA\ triplet obtained with the Tenerife Infrared
Polarimeter (TIP) at the VTT (Tenerife). The two extrapolations have been
carried out independently from each other and their respective spatial domains
overlap in a considerable height range. This opens up new possibilities for
diagnostics in addition to the usual ones obtained through a single
extrapolation from, typically, a photospheric layer. Among those possibilities,
this method allows the determination of an average formation height of the He I
10830 \AA\ signal of \approx 2 Mm above the surface of the sun. It allows, as
well, to cross-check the obtained 3D magnetic structures in view of verifying a
possible deviation from the force- free condition especially at the
photosphere. The extrapolations yield a filament formed by a twisted flux rope
whose axis is located at about 1.4 Mm above the solar surface. The twisted
field lines make slightly more than one turn along the filament within our box,
which results in 0.055 turns/Mm. The convex part of the field lines (as seen
from the solar surface) constitute dips where the plasma can naturally be
supported. The obtained 3D magnetic structure of the filament depends on the
choice of the observed horizontal magnetic field as determined from the
180\circ solution of the azimuth. We derive a method to check for the
correctness of the selected 180\circ ambiguity solution.Comment: 31 pages, 13 figures, ApJ Accepte
Simulation of a flux emergence event and comparison with observations by Hinode
We study the observational signature of flux emergence in the photosphere
using synthetic data from a 3D MHD simulation of the emergence of a twisted
flux tube. Several stages in the emergence process are considered. At every
stage we compute synthetic Stokes spectra of the two iron lines Fe I 6301.5
{\AA} and Fe I 6302.5 {\AA} and degrade the data to the spatial and spectral
resolution of Hinode's SOT/SP. Then, following observational practice, we apply
Milne-Eddington-type inversions to the synthetic spectra in order to retrieve
various atmospheric parameters and compare the results with recent Hinode
observations. During the emergence sequence, the spectral lines sample
different parts of the rising flux tube, revealing its twisted structure. The
horizontal component of the magnetic field retrieved from the simulations is
close to the observed values. The flattening of the flux tube in the
photosphere is caused by radiative cooling, which slows down the ascent of the
tube to the upper solar atmosphere. Consistent with the observations, the
rising magnetized plasma produces a blue shift of the spectral lines during a
large part of the emergence sequence.Comment: A&A Letter, 3 figure
Power spectrum of turbulent convection in the solar photosphere
The solar photosphere provides us with a laboratory for understanding
turbulence in a layer where the fundamental processes of transport vary rapidly
and a strongly superadiabatic region lies very closely to a subadiabatic layer.
Our tools for probing the turbulence are high-resolution spectropolarimetric
observations such as have recently been obtained with the two sunrise missions,
and numerical simulations. Our aim is to study photospheric turbulence with the
help of Fourier power spectra that we compute from observations and
simulations. We also attempt to explain some properties of the photospheric
overshooting flow with the help of its governing equations and simulations. We
find that quiet-Sun observations and smeared simulations exhibit a power-law
behavior in the subgranular range of their Doppler velocity power spectra with
an index of. The unsmeared simulations exhibit a power-law index
of. The smearing considerably reduces the extent of the
power-law-like portion of the spectra. Therefore, the limited spatial
resolution in some observations might eventually result in larger uncertainties
in the estimation of the power-law indices.
The simulated vertical velocity power spectra as a function of height show a
rapid change in the power-law index from the solar surface to ~km above
it. A scale-dependent transport of the vertical momentum occurs. At smaller
scales, the vertical momentum is more efficiently transported sideways than at
larger scales. This results in less vertical velocity power transported upward
at small scales than at larger scales and produces a progressively steeper
vertical velocity power law below km. Above this height, the gravity work
progressively gains importance at all scales, making the atmosphere
progressively more hydrostatic and resulting in a gradually less steep power
law.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, Accepted in A and
Magneto-acoustic waves in a gravitationally stratified magnetized plasma: eigen-solutions and their applications to the solar atmosphere
Magneto-acoustic gravity (MAG) waves have been studied intensively in the context of astrophysical plasmas. There are three popular choices of analytic modeling using a Cartesian coordinate system: a magnetic field parallel, perpendicular, or at an angle to the gravitational field. Here, we study a gravitationally stratified plasma embedded in a parallel, so called vertical, magnetic field. We find a governing equation for the auxiliary quantity Θ = p 1/ρ 0, and find solutions in terms of hypergeometric functions. With the convenient relationship between Θ and the vertical velocity component, v z , we derive the solution for v z . We show that the four linearly independent functions for v z can also be cast as single hypergeometric functions, rather than the Frobenius series derived by Leroy & Schwartz. We are then able to analyze a case of approximation for a one-layer solution, taking the small wavelength limit. Motivated by solar atmospheric applications, we finally commence study of the eigenmodes of perturbations for a two-layer model using our solutions, solving the dispersion relation numerically. We show that, for a transition between a photospheric and chromospheric plasma embedded in a vertical magnetic field, modes exist that are between the observationally widely investigated three and five minute oscillation periods, interpreted as solar global oscillations in the lower solar atmosphere. It is also shown that, when the density contrast between the layers is large (e.g., applied to photosphere/chromosphere-corona), the global eigenmodes are practically a superposition of the same as in each of the separate one-layer systems
Multiscale magnetic underdense regions on the solar surface: Granular and Mesogranular scales
The Sun is a non-equilibrium dissipative system subjected to an energy flow
which originates in its core. Convective overshooting motions create
temperature and velocity structures which show a temporal and spatial
evolution. As a result, photospheric structures are generally considered to be
the direct manifestation of convective plasma motions. The plasma flows on the
photosphere govern the motion of single magnetic elements. These elements are
arranged in typical patterns which are observed as a variety of multiscale
magnetic patterns. High resolution magnetograms of quiet solar surface revealed
the presence of magnetic underdense regions in the solar photosphere, commonly
called voids, which may be considered a signature of the underlying convective
structure. The analysis of such patterns paves the way for the investigation of
all turbulent convective scales from granular to global. In order to address
the question of magnetic structures driven by turbulent convection at granular
and mesogranular scales we used a "voids" detection method. The computed voids
distribution shows an exponential behavior at scales between 2 and 10 Mm and
the absence of features at 5-10 Mm mesogranular scales. The absence of
preferred scales of organization in the 2-10 Mm range supports the multiscale
nature of flows on the solar surface and the absence of a mesogranular
convective scale
Tsunami hazards in the Catalan Coast, a low-intensity seismic activity area
The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11069-017-2918-zThe potential impacts of tsunamis along the Catalan Coast (NW Mediterranean) are analysed using numerical modelling. The region is characterized by moderate to low seismic activity and by moderate- to low-magnitude earthquakes. However, the occurrence of historical strong earthquakes and the location of several active offshore faults in front of the coast suggest that the possibility of an earthquake-triggered tsunami is not negligible although of low probability. Up to five faults have been identified to generate tsunamis, being the highest associated possible seismic magnitudes of up to 7.6. Coastal flooding and port agitation are characterized using the Worst-case Credible Tsunami Scenario Analysis approach. The results show a multiple fault source contribution to tsunami hazard. The shelf dimensions and the existence of submerged canyons control the tsunami propagation. In wide shelves, waves travelling offshore may become trapped by refraction causing the wave energy to reach the coastline at some distance from the origin. The free surface water elevation increases at the head of the canyons due to the sharp depth gradients. The effects of potential tsunamis would be very harmful in low-lying coastal stretches, such as deltas, with a high population concentration, assets and infrastructures. The Ebro delta appears to be the most exposed coast, and about the 20% of the delta surface is prone to flooding due to its extremely low-lying nature. The activity at Barcelona port will be severely affected by inflow backflow current at the entrance of up to 2 m/s.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft