805 research outputs found
Chromospheric evaporation flows and density changes deduced from Hinode/EIS during an M1.6 flare
We analyzed high-cadence sit-and-stare observations acquired with the
Hinode/EIS spectrometer and HXR measurements acquired with RHESSI during an
M-class flare. During the flare impulsive phase, we observe no significant
flows in the cooler Fe XIII line but strong upflows, up to 80-150 km/s, in the
hotter Fe XVI line. The largest Doppler shifts observed in the Fe XVI line were
co-temporal with the sharp intensity peak. The electron density obtained from a
Fe XIII line pair ratio exhibited fast increase (within two minutes) from the
pre-flare level of 5.01x10^(9) cm^(-3) to 3.16x10^(10) cm^(-3) during the flare
peak. The nonthermal energy flux density deposited from the coronal
acceleration site to the lower atmospheric layers during the flare peak was
found to be 1.34x10^(10) erg/s/cm^(2) for a low-energy cut-off that was
estimated to be 16 keV. During the decline flare phase, we found a secondary
intensity and density peak of lower amplitude that was preceded by upflows of
15 km/s that were detected in both lines. The flare was also accompanied by a
filament eruption that was partly captured by the EIS observations. We derived
Doppler velocities of 250-300 km/s for the upflowing filament material.The
spectroscopic results for the flare peak are consistent with the scenario of
explosive chromospheric evaporation, although a comparatively low value of the
nonthermal energy flux density was determined for this phase of the flare. This
outcome is discussed in the context of recent hydrodynamic simulations. It
provides observational evidence that the response of the atmospheric plasma
strongly depends on the properties of the electron beams responsible for the
heating, in particular the steepness of the energy distribution.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
Comparison of force-free coronal magnetic field modeling using vector fields from Hinode and Solar Dynamics Observatory
Photospheric magnetic vector maps from two different instruments are used to
model the nonlinear force-free coronal magnetic field above an active region.
We use vector maps inferred from polarization measurements of the Solar
Dynamics Observatory/Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) and the Solar
Optical Telescope Spectropolarimeter (SP) aboard Hinode. Besides basing our
model calculations on HMI data, we use both, SP data of original resolution and
scaled down to the resolution of HMI. This allows us to compare the model
results based on data from different instruments and to investigate how a
binning of high-resolution data effects the model outcome. The resulting 3D
magnetic fields are compared in terms of magnetic energy content and magnetic
topology. We find stronger magnetic fields in the SP data, translating into a
higher total magnetic energy of the SP models. The net Lorentz forces of the
HMI and SP lower boundaries verify their force-free compatibility. We find
substantial differences in the absolute estimates of the magnetic field energy
but similar relative estimates, e.g., the fraction of excess energy and of the
flux shared by distinct areas. The location and extension of neighboring
connectivity domains differs and the SP model fields tend to be higher and more
vertical. Hence, conclusions about the magnetic connectivity based on
force-free field models are to be drawn with caution. We find that the
deviations of the model solution when based on the lower-resolution SP data are
small compared to the differences of the solutions based on data from different
instruments.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures, APJ, accepte
Magnetic helicity and energy budget around large confined and eruptive solar flares
We investigate the coronal magnetic energy and helicity budgets of ten solar
ARs, around the times of large flares. In particular, we are interested in a
possible relation of the derived quantities to the particular type of the
flares that the AR produces, i.e., whether they are associated with a CME or
they are confined. Using an optimization approach, we employ time series of 3D
nonlinear force-free magnetic field models of ten ARs, covering a time span of
several hours around the time of occurrence of large solar flares (GOES class
M1.0 and larger). We subsequently compute the 3D magnetic vector potentials
associated to the model 3D coronal magnetic field using a finite-volume method.
This allows us to correspondingly compute the coronal magnetic energy and
helicity budgets, as well as related (intensive) quantities such as the
relative contribution of free magnetic energy, (energy
ratio), the fraction of non-potential (current-carrying) helicity,
(helicity ratio), and the normalized
current-carrying helicity, . The total
energy and helicity budgets of flare-productive ARs (extensive parameters)
cover a broad range of magnitudes, with no obvious relation to the eruptive
potential of the individual ARs, i.e., whether or not a CME is produced in
association with the flare. The intensive eruptivity proxies,
and , and
, however, seem to be distinctly
different for ARs that produced CME-associated large flares compared to those
which produced confined flares. For the majority of ARs in our sample, we are
able to identify characteristic pre-flare magnitudes of the intensive
quantities, clearly associated to subsequent CME-productivity.Comment: Accepted for publication in A & A journal, 19 pages, and 11 figure
Magnetic Helicity Estimations in Models and Observations of the Solar Magnetic Field. Part III: Twist Number Method
We study the writhe, twist and magnetic helicity of different magnetic flux
ropes, based on models of the solar coronal magnetic field structure. These
include an analytical force-free Titov--D\'emoulin equilibrium solution, non
force-free magnetohydrodynamic simulations, and nonlinear force-free magnetic
field models. The geometrical boundary of the magnetic flux rope is determined
by the quasi-separatrix layer and the bottom surface, and the axis curve of the
flux rope is determined by its overall orientation. The twist is computed by
the Berger--Prior formula that is suitable for arbitrary geometry and both
force-free and non-force-free models. The magnetic helicity is estimated by the
twist multiplied by the square of the axial magnetic flux. We compare the
obtained values with those derived by a finite volume helicity estimation
method. We find that the magnetic helicity obtained with the twist method
agrees with the helicity carried by the purely current-carrying part of the
field within uncertainties for most test cases. It is also found that the
current-carrying part of the model field is relatively significant at the very
location of the magnetic flux rope. This qualitatively explains the agreement
between the magnetic helicity computed by the twist method and the helicity
contributed purely by the current-carrying magnetic field.Comment: To be published in Ap
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&
Nonlinear force-free field modeling of a solar active region using SDO/HMI and SOLIS/VSM data
We use SDO/HMI and SOLIS/VSM photospheric magnetic field measurements to
model the force-free coronal field above a solar active region, assuming
magnetic forces to dominate. We take measurement uncertainties caused by, e.g.,
noise and the particular inversion technique into account. After searching for
the optimum modeling parameters for the particular data sets, we compare the
resulting nonlinear force-free model fields. We show the degree of agreement of
the coronal field reconstructions from the different data sources by comparing
the relative free energy content, the vertical distribution of the magnetic
pressure and the vertically integrated current density. Though the longitudinal
and transverse magnetic flux measured by the VSM and HMI is clearly different,
we find considerable similarities in the modeled fields. This indicates the
robustness of the algorithm we use to calculate the nonlinear force-free fields
against differences and deficiencies of the photospheric vector maps used as an
input. We also depict how much the absolute values of the total force-free,
virial and the free magnetic energy differ and how the orientation of the
longitudinal and transverse components of the HMI- and VSM-based model volumes
compares to each other.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure
The Influence of Spatial Resolution on Nonlinear Force-Free Modeling
The nonlinear force-free field (NLFFF) model is often used to describe the
solar coronal magnetic field, however a series of earlier studies revealed
difficulties in the numerical solution of the model in application to
photospheric boundary data. We investigate the sensitivity of the modeling to
the spatial resolution of the boundary data, by applying multiple codes that
numerically solve the NLFFF model to a sequence of vector magnetogram data at
different resolutions, prepared from a single Hinode/SOT-SP scan of NOAA Active
Region 10978 on 2007 December 13. We analyze the resulting energies and
relative magnetic helicities, employ a Helmholtz decomposition to characterize
divergence errors, and quantify changes made by the codes to the vector
magnetogram boundary data in order to be compatible with the force-free model.
This study shows that NLFFF modeling results depend quantitatively on the
spatial resolution of the input boundary data, and that using more highly
resolved boundary data yields more self-consistent results. The free energies
of the resulting solutions generally trend higher with increasing resolution,
while relative magnetic helicity values vary significantly between resolutions
for all methods. All methods require changing the horizontal components, and
for some methods also the vertical components, of the vector magnetogram
boundary field in excess of nominal uncertainties in the data. The solutions
produced by the various methods are significantly different at each resolution
level. We continue to recommend verifying agreement between the modeled field
lines and corresponding coronal loop images before any NLFFF model is used in a
scientific setting.Comment: Accepted to ApJ; comments/corrections to this article are welcome via
e-mail, even after publicatio
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