No Arabic abstract
Numerical simulations of magnetosonic wave formation driven by an expanding cylindrical piston are performed to get better physical insight into the initiation and evolution of large-scale coronal waves. Several very basic initial configurations are employed to analyze intrinsic characteristics of the MHD wave formation that do not depend on specific properties of the environment. It turns out that these simple initial configurations result in piston/wave morphologies and kinematics that reproduce common characteristics of coronal waves. In the initial stage the wave and the expanding source-region cannot be clearly resolved. During the acceleration stage of the source-region inflation, the wave is driven by the piston expansion, so its amplitude and phase-speed increase, whereas the wavefront profile steepens. At a given point, a discontinuity forms in the wavefront profile. The time/distance required for the shock formation is shorter for a more impulsive source-region expansion. After the piston stops, the wave amplitude and phase-speed start decreasing. During the expansion, most of the source region becomes strongly rarified, which reproduces the coronal dimming left behind the eruption. On the other hand, the density increases at the source-region boundary, and stays enhanced even after the expansion stops, which might explain stationary brightenings that are sometimes observed at the edges of the erupted coronal structure. In addition, in the rear of the wave a weak density depletion develops, trailing the wave, which is sometimes observed as weak transient coronal dimming. Finally, we find a well defined relationship between the impulsiveness of the source-region expansion and the wave amplitude and phase speed. The results for the cylindrical piston are also compared with the outcome for a planar wave, to find out how different geometries affect the evolution of the wave.
We investigate whether tidal forcing can result in sound waves steepening into shocks at the surface of a star. To model the sound waves and shocks, we consider adiabatic non-spherical perturbations of a Newtonian perfect fluid star. Because tidal forcing of sounds waves is naturally treated with linear theory, but the formation of shocks is necessarily nonlinear, we consider the perturbations in two regimes. In most of the interior, where tidal forcing dominates, we treat the perturbations as linear, while in a thin layer near the surface we treat them in full nonlinearity but in the approximation of plane symmetry, fixed gravitational field and a barotropic equation of state. Using a hodograph transformation, this nonlinear regime is also described by a linear equation. We show that the two regimes can be matched to give rise to a single mode equation which is linear but models nonlinearity in the outer layers. This can then be used to obtain an estimate for the critical mode amplitude at which a shock forms near the surface. As an application, we consider the tidal waves raised by the companion in an irrotational binary system in circular orbit. We find that shocks form at the same orbital separation where Roche lobe overflow occurs, and so shock formation is unlikely to occur.
Context: Metric type II bursts are the most direct diagnostic of shock waves in the solar corona. Aims: There are two main competing views about the origin of coronal shocks: that they originate in either blast waves ignited by the pressure pulse of a flare or piston-driven shocks due to coronal mass ejections (CMEs). We studied three well-observed type II bursts in an attempt to place tighter constraints on their origins. Methods: The type II bursts were observed by the ARTEMIS radio spectrograph and imaged by the Nanc{c}ay Radioheliograph (NRH) at least at two frequencies. To take advantage of projection effects, we selected events that occurred away from disk center. Results: In all events, both flares and CMEs were observed. In the first event, the speed of the shock was about 4200 km/s, while the speed of the CME was about 850 km/s. This discrepancy ruled out the CME as the primary shock driver. The CME may have played a role in the ignition of another shock that occurred just after the high speed one. A CME driver was excluded from the second event as well because the CMEs that appeared in the coronagraph data were not synchronized with the type II burst. In the third event, the kinematics of the CME which was determined by combining EUV and white light data was broadly consistent with the kinematics of the type II burst, and, therefore, the shock was probably CME-driven. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates the diversity of conditions that may lead to the generation of coronal shocks.
On 17 January 2010, STEREO-B observed in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and white light a large-scale dome-shaped expanding coronal transient with perfectly connected off-limb and on-disk signatures. Veronig et al. (2010, ApJL 716, 57) concluded that the dome was formed by a weak shock wave. We have revealed two EUV components, one of which corresponded to this transient. All of its properties found from EUV, white light, and a metric type II burst match expectations for a freely expanding coronal shock wave including correspondence to the fast-mode speed distribution, while the transient sweeping over the solar surface had a speed typical of EUV waves. The shock wave was presumably excited by an abrupt filament eruption. Both a weak shock approximation and a power-law fit match kinematics of the transient near the Sun. Moreover, the power-law fit matches expansion of the CME leading edge up to 24 solar radii. The second, quasi-stationary EUV component near the dimming was presumably associated with a stretched CME structure; no indications of opening magnetic fields have been detected far from the eruption region.
We show examples of excitation of coronal waves by flare-related abrupt eruptions of magnetic rope structures. The waves presumably rapidly steepened into shocks and freely propagated afterwards like decelerating blast waves that showed up as Moreton waves and EUV waves. We propose a simple quantitative description for such shock waves to reconcile their observed propagation with drift rates of metric type II bursts and kinematics of leading edges of coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Taking account of different plasma density falloffs for propagation of a wave up and along the solar surface, we demonstrate a close correspondence between drift rates of type II bursts and speeds of EUV waves, Moreton waves, and CMEs observed in a few known events.
An X5.4 class flare occurred in active region (AR) NOAA11429 on 2012 March 7. The flare was associated with very fast coronal mass ejection (CME) with its velocity of over 2500 km/s. In the images taken with STEREO-B/COR1, a dome-like disturbance was seen to detach from expanding CME bubble and propagated further. A Type-II radio burst was also observed at the same time. On the other hand, in EUV images obtained by SDO/AIA, expanding dome-like structure and its foot print propagating to the north were observed. The foot print propagated with its average speed of about 670 km/s and hit a prominence located at the north pole and activated it. While the activation, the prominence was strongly brightened. On the basis of some observational evidence, we concluded that the foot print in AIA images and the ones in COR1 images are the same, that is MHD fast mode shock front. With the help of a linear theory, the fast mode mach number of the coronal shock is estimated to be between 1.11 and 1.29 using the initial velocity of the activated prominence. Also, the plasma compression ratio of the shock is enhanced to be between 1.18 and 2.11 in the prominence material, which we consider to be the reason of the strong brightening of the activated prominence. The applicability of linear theory to the shock problem is tested with nonlinear MHD simulation.