50 research outputs found
Spatiotemporal organization of energy release events in the quiet solar corona
Using data from STEREO and SOHO spacecraft, we show that temporal
organization of energy release events in the quiet solar corona is close to
random, in contrast to the clustered behavior of flaring times in solar active
regions. The locations of the quiet-Sun events follow the meso- and
supergranulation pattern of the underling photosphere. Together with earlier
reports of the scale-free event size statistics, our findings suggest that
quiet solar regions responsible for bulk coronal heating operate in a driven
self-organized critical state, possibly involving long-range Alfv\'{e}nic
interactions.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl
Image-Optimized Coronal Magnetic Field Models
We have reported previously on a new method we are developing for using
image-based information to improve global coronal magnetic field models. In
that work we presented early tests of the method which proved its capability to
improve global models based on flawed synoptic magnetograms, given excellent
constraints on the field in the model volume. In this follow-up paper we
present the results of similar tests given field constraints of a nature that
could realistically be obtained from quality white-light coronagraph images of
the lower corona. We pay particular attention to difficulties associated with
the line-of-sight projection of features outside of the assumed coronagraph
image plane, and the effect on the outcome of the optimization of errors in
localization of constraints. We find that substantial improvement in the model
field can be achieved with this type of constraints, even when magnetic
features in the images are located outside of the image plane
Statistical Evidence for Small-Scale Interchange Reconnection at a Coronal Hole Boundary
Much of coronal hole (CH) research is focused upon determining the boundary
and calculating the open flux as accurately as possible. However, the observed
boundary itself is worthy of investigation, and holds important clues to the
physics transpiring at the interface between the open and closed fields. This
Letter reports a powerful new method, an application of the correlation
integral which we call correlation dimension mapping (CDM), by which the
irregularity of a CH boundary can be objectively quantified. This method
highlights the most important spatial scales involved in boundary dynamics, and
also allows for easy temporal analysis of the boundary. We apply this method to
an equatorial CH bounded on two sides by helmet streamers and on the third by a
small pseudostreamer, which we observed at maximum cadence for an hour on 2015
June 4. We argue that the relevant spatial scales are in the range of Mm, and we find that boundary complexity depends measurably upon the
nature of the neighboring closed structure. The boundary along the
pseudostreamer shows signs of highly-localized, intermittent complexity
variability, likely associated with abrupt changes in the magnetic topology,
which would be elegantly explained by interchange reconnection. By contrast,
the helmet streamer boundary supports long-lived high-complexity regions. These
findings support the recent predictions of interchange reconnection occurring
at very small scales in the corona.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure
Measuring temperature - dependent propagating disturbances in coronal fan loops using multiple SDO/AIA channels and surfing transform technique
A set of co-aligned high resolution images from the Atmospheric Imaging
Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is used to
investigate propagating disturbances (PDs) in warm fan loops at the periphery
of a non-flaring active region NOAA AR 11082. To measure PD speeds at multiple
coronal temperatures, a new data analysis methodology is proposed enabling
quantitative description of subvisual coronal motions with low signal-to-noise
ratios of the order of 0.1 %. The technique operates with a set of
one-dimensional "surfing" signals extracted from position-time plots of several
AIA channels through a modified version of Radon transform. The signals are
used to evaluate a two-dimensional power spectral density distribution in the
frequency - velocity space which exhibits a resonance in the presence of
quasi-periodic PDs. By applying this analysis to the same fan loop structures
observed in several AIA channels, we found that the traveling velocity of PDs
increases with the temperature of the coronal plasma following the square root
dependence predicted for the slow mode magneto-acoustic wave which seems to be
the dominating wave mode in the studied loop structures. This result extends
recent observations by Kiddie et al. (Solar Phys., 2012) to a more general
class of fan loop systems not associated with sunspots and demonstrating
consistent slow mode activity in up to four AIA channels.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures, 2 table
Are coronal loops projection effects?
We report results of an in-depth numerical investigation of three-dimensional
projection effects which could influence the observed loop-like structures in
an optically thin solar corona. Several archetypal emitting geometries are
tested, including collections of luminous structures with circular
cross-sections of fixed and random size, light-emitting structures with highly
anisotropic cross-sections, as well as two-dimensional stochastic current
density structures generated by fully-developed magnetohydrodynamic (MHD)
turbulence. A comprehensive set of statistical signatures is used to compare
the line of sight -integrated emission signals predicted by the constructed
numerical models with the loop profiles observed by the extreme ultraviolet
telescope onboard the flight 2.1 of the High-Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C).
The results suggest that typical cross-sectional emission envelopes of the Hi-C
loops are unlikely to have high eccentricity, and that the observed loops
cannot be attributed to randomly oriented quasi-two dimensional emitting
structures, some of which would produce anomalously strong optical signatures
due to an accidental line-of-sight alignment expected in the coronal veil
scenario \citep{malanushenko2022}. The possibility of apparent loop-like
projections of very small (close to the resolution limit) or very large
(comparable with the size of an active region) light-emitting sheets remains
open, but the intermediate range of scales commonly associated with observed
loop systems is most likely filled with true quasi-one dimensional (roughly
axisymmetric) structures embedded into the three-dimensional coronal volume.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures, 2 table
Multiscale Dynamics of Solar Magnetic Structures
Multiscale topological complexity of the solar magnetic field is among the primary factors controlling energy release in the corona, including associated processes in the photospheric and chromospheric boundaries.We present a new approach for analyzing multiscale behavior of the photospheric magnetic flux underlying these dynamics as depicted by a sequence of high-resolution solar magnetograms. The approach involves two basic processing steps: (1) identification of timing and location of magnetic flux origin and demise events (as defined by DeForest et al.) by tracking spatiotemporal evolution of unipolar and bipolar photospheric regions, and (2) analysis of collective behavior of the detected magnetic events using a generalized version of the Grassberger-Procaccia correlation integral algorithm. The scale-free nature of the developed algorithms makes it possible to characterize the dynamics of the photospheric network across a wide range of distances and relaxation times. Three types of photospheric conditions are considered to test the method: a quiet photosphere, a solar active region (NOAA 10365) in a quiescent non-flaring state, and the same active region during a period of M-class flares. The results obtained show (1) the presence of a topologically complex asymmetrically fragmented magnetic network in the quiet photosphere driven by meso- and supergranulation, (2) the formation of non-potential magnetic structures with complex polarity separation lines inside the active region, and (3) statistical signatures of canceling bipolar magnetic structures coinciding with flaring activity in the active region. Each of these effects can represent an unstable magnetic configuration acting as an energy source for coronal dissipation and heating