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Register a new userOn the Formation Height of the SDO/HMI Fe 6173 Doppler Signal
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The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is designed to study oscillations and the mag- netic field in the solar photosphere. It observes the full solar disk in the Fe I absorption line at 6173AA . We use the output of a high-resolution 3D, time- dependent, radiation-hydrodynamic simulation based on the CO5BOLD code to calculate profiles F({lambda},x,y,t) for the Fe I 6173{AA} line. The emerging profiles F({lambda},x,y,t) are multiplied by a representative set of HMI filter transmission profiles R_i({lambda},1 leq i leq 6) and filtergrams I_i(x,y,t;1 leq i leq 6) are constructed for six wavelengths. Doppler velocities V_HMI(x,y,t) are determined from these filtergrams using a simplified version of the HMI pipeline. The Doppler velocities are correlated with the original velocities in the simulated atmosphere. The cross- correlation peaks near 100 km, suggesting that the HMI Doppler velocity signal is formed rather low in the solar atmosphere. The same analysis is performed for the SOHO/MDI Ni I line at 6768AA . The MDI Doppler signal is formed slightly higher at around 125 km. Taking into account the limited spatial resolution of the instruments, the apparent formation height of both the HMI and MDI Doppler signal increases by 40 to 50 km. We also study how uncertainties in the HMI filter-transmission profiles affect the calculated velocities.
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The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory has provided unique observations of off-limb flare emission. White-light (WL) continuum enhancements were detected in the continuum channel of the Fe 6173 A line during the impulsive phase of the observed flares. In this paper we aim to determine which radiation mechanism is responsible for such an enhancement being seen above the limb, at chromospheric heights around or below 1000 km. Using a simple analytical approach, we compare two candidate mechanisms, the hydrogen recombination continuum (Paschen) and the Thomson continuum due to scattering of disk radiation on flare electrons. Both mechanisms depend on the electron density, which is typically enhanced during the impulsive phase of a flare as the result of collisional ionization (both thermal and also non-thermal due to electron beams). We conclude that for electron densities higher than $10^{12}$ cm$^{-3}$, the Paschen recombination continuum significantly dominates the Thomson scattering continuum and there is some contribution from the hydrogen free-free emission. This is further supported by detailed radiation-hydrodynamical (RHD) simulations of the flare chromosphere heated by the electron beams. We use the RHD code FLARIX to compute the temporal evolution of the flare heating in a semi-circular loop. The synthesized continuum structure above the limb resembles the off-limb flare structures detected by HMI, namely their height above the limb, as well as the radiation intensity. These results are consistent with recent findings related to hydrogen Balmer continuum enhancements, which were clearly detected in disk flares by the IRIS near-ultraviolet spectrometer.
We take advantage of the HMI/SDO instrument to study the naked emergence of active regions from the first imprints of the magnetic field on the solar surface. To this end, we followed the first 24 hours in the life of two rather isolated ARs that appeared on the surface when they were about to cross the central meridian. We analyze the correlations between Doppler velocities and the orientation of the vector magnetic field finding, consistently, that the horizontal fields connecting the main polarities are dragged to the surface by relatively-strong upflows and are associated to elongated granulation that is, on average, brighter than its surroundings. The main magnetic footpoints, on the other hand, are dominated by vertical fields and downflowing plasma. The appearance of moving dipolar features, MDFs, (of opposite polarity to that of the AR) in between the main footpoints, is a rather common occurrence once the AR reaches a certain size. The buoyancy of the fields is insufficient to lift up the magnetic arcade as a whole. Instead, weighted by the plasma that it carries, the field is pinned down to the photosphere at several places in between the main footpoints, giving life to the MDFs and enabling channels of downflowing plasma. MDF poles tend to drift towards each other, merge and disappear. This is likely to be the signature of a reconnection process in the dipped field lines, which relieves some of the weight allowing the magnetic arcade to finally rise beyond the detection layer of the HMI spectral line.
Aims: The statistics of the photospheric granulation pattern are investigated using continuum images observed by Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO)/Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) taken at 6713~AA. Methods: The supergranular boundaries can be extracted by tracking photospheric velocity plasma flows. The local ball-tracking method is employed to apply on the HMI data gathered over the years 2011-2015 to estimate the boundaries of the cells. The edge sharpening techniques are exerted on the output of ball-tracking to precisely identify the cells borders. To study the fractal dimensionality (FD) of supergranulation, the box counting method is used. Results: We found that both the size and eccentricity follow the log-normal distributions with peak values about 330 Mm$^2$ and 0.85, respectively. The five-year mean value of the cells number appeared in half-hour sequences is obtained to be about 60 $pm$ 6 within an area of $350^{primeprime}times350^{primeprime}$. The cells orientation distribution presents the power-law behavior. Conclusions: The orientation of supergranular cells ($O$) and their size ($S$) follows a power-law function as $|O| propto S^{9.5}$. We found that the non-roundish cells with smaller and larger sizes than 600 Mm$^2$ are aligned and perpendicular with the solar rotational velocity on the photosphere, respectively. The FD analysis shows that the supergranular cells form the self-similar patterns.
The Solar Dynamics Observatory/Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (SDO/HMI) filtergrams, taken at six wavelengths around the Fe I 6173.3 {AA} line, contain information about the line-of-sight velocity over a range of heights in the solar atmosphere. Multi-height velocity inferences from these observations can be exploited to study wave motions and energy transport in the atmosphere. Using realistic convection simulation datasets provided by the STAGGER and MURaM codes, we generate synthetic filtergrams and explore several methods for estimating Dopplergrams. We investigate at which height each synthetic Dopplergram correlates most strongly with the vertical velocity in the model atmospheres. On the basis of the investigation, we propose two Dopplergrams other than the standard HMI-algorithm Dopplergram produced from HMI filtergrams: a line-center Dopplergram and an average-wing Dopplergram. These two Dopplergrams correlate most strongly with vertical velocities at the heights of 30 - 40 km above (line-center) and 30 - 40 km below (average-wing) the effective height of the HMI-algorithm Dopplergram. Therefore, we can obtain velocity information from two layers separated by about a half of a scale height in the atmosphere, at best. The phase shifts between these multi-height Dopplergrams from observational data as well as those from the simulated data are also consistent with the height-difference estimates in the frequency range above the photospheric acoustic cutoff frequency.
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