No Arabic abstract
Short heat pulses can trigger plasma pressure fronts inside closed magnetic tubes in the corona. The alternation of condensations and rarefactions from the pressure modes drive large-amplitude pulsations in the plasma emission. Here we show the detection of such pulsations along magnetic tubes that brighten transiently in the hot 94A EUV channel of SDO/AIA. The pulsations are consistent with those predicted by hydrodynamic loop modeling, and confirm pulsed heating in the loop system. The comparison of observations and model provides constraints on the heat deposition: a good agreement requires loop twisting and pulses deposited close to the footpoints with a duration of 0.5 min in one loop, and deposited in the corona with a duration of 2.5 min in another loop of the same loop system.
The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) has observed bright spots at the transition region footpoints associated with heating in the overlying loops, as observed by coronal imagers. Some of these brightenings show significant blueshifts in the Si iv line at 1402.77 A (logT[K] = 4.9). Such blueshifts cannot be reproduced by coronal loop models assuming heating by thermal conduction only, but are consistent with electron beam heating, highlighting for the first time the possible importance of non-thermal electrons in the heating of non-flaring active regions. Here we report on the coronal counterparts of these brightenings observed in the hot channels of the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory. We show that the IRIS bright spots are the footpoints of very hot and transient coronal loops which clearly experience strong magnetic interactions and rearrangements, thus confirming the impulsive nature of the heating and providing important constraints for their physical interpretation.
We perform multiwavelength time-distance analysis of a fan loop system anchored in an isolated sunspot region AR 12553. The active region was observed by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory. We measure the phase speeds of the propagating intensity disturbances by employing cross-correlation analysis, as well as by obtaining the slopes in xt-plots. We obtain original as well as de-trended light curves at different heights of the time-distance maps and characterize them by performing Fourier and Wavelet analysis, respectively. The time-distance maps reveal clear propagation of intensity oscillations in all the coronal EUV channels except AIA 94 and 335~{AA}. We determine the nature of the intensity disturbances as slow magnetoacoustic waves by measuring their phase speeds. The time-distance maps, as well as the de-trended light curves, show an increase and decrease in the amplitude of propagating 3-min oscillations over time. The amplitude variations appear most prominent in AIA 171~{AA}, though other EUV channels also show such signatures. Fourier power spectrum yield the presence of significant powers with several nearby frequencies between 2--3 minutes (5--8 mHz), along with many other smaller peaks between 2--4 minutes. Wavelet analysis shows an increase and decrease of oscillating power around 3-min simultaneous to the amplitude variations. We obtain the modulation period to be in the range of 20--30 minutes. Our results provide the viability of occurrence of phenomenon like `Beat among the nearby frequencies giving rise to the observed amplitude modulation. However, we cannot, at this stage, rule out the possibility that the modulation may be driven by variability of an underlying unknown source.
The nature of quasi-periodic pulsations in solar flares is poorly constrained, and critically the general prevalence of such signals in solar flares is unknown. Therefore, we perform a large-scale search for evidence of signals consistent with quasi-periodic pulsations in solar flares, focusing on the 1 - 300s timescale. We analyse 675 M- and X-class flares observed by GOES in 1-8AA soft X-rays between 2011 February 1 and 2015 December 31. Additionally, over the same era we analyse Fermi/GBM 15-25 keV X-ray data for each of these flares that was associated with a Fermi/GBM solar flare trigger, a total of 261 events. Using a model comparison method, we determine whether there is evidence for a substantial enhancement in the Fourier power spectrum that may be consistent with a QPP signature, based on three tested models; a power-law plus a constant, a broken power-law plus constant, and a power-law-plus-constant with an additional QPP signature component. From this, we determine that ~30% of GOES events and ~8% of Fermi/GBM events show strong signatures consistent with classical interpretations of QPP. For the remaining events either two or more tested models cannot be strongly distinguished from each other, or the events are well-described by single power-law or broken power-law Fourier power spectra. For both instruments, a preferred characteristic timescale of ~5-30 s was found in the QPP-like events, with no dependence on flare magnitude in either GOES or GBM data. We also show that individual events in the sample show similar characteristic timescales in both GBM and GOES datasets. We discuss the implications of these results for our understanding of solar flares and possible QPP mechanisms.
We report quasi-periodic pulsations (QPPs) with double periods during three solar flares (viz. SOL2011-Feb-15T01:44, SOL2011-Sep-25T04:31, SOL2012-May-17T01:25). The flare QPPs were observed from light curves in Ly$alpha$, hard X-ray (HXR) and microwave emissions, with the Ly$alpha$ emission recorded by the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, the HXR emission recorded by the Reuven Ramaty High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager and the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor, and the microwave emission recorded by the Nobeyama Radio Polarimeters and Radioheliograph. By using the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method, QPPs with double periods of about two minutes and one minute were first found in the Ly$alpha$ emission. Then using the same method, a QPP with nearly the same period of about two minutes was also found in HXR and microwave emissions. Considering the possible common origin (nonthermal electrons) between Ly$alpha$ and HXR/microwave emission, we suggest that the two-minute QPP results from the periodic acceleration of nonthermal electrons during magnetic reconnections. The ratio between the double periods in the Ly$alpha$ emission was found to be close to two, which is consistent with the theoretical expectation between the fundamental and harmonic modes. However, we cannot rule out other possible driving mechanisms for the one-minute QPPs in HXR/microwave emissions due to their relatively large deviations.
Taking advantage of both the high temporal and spatial resolution of the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), we studied a limb coronal shock wave and its associated extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wave that occurred on 2010 June 13. Our main findings are (1) the shock wave appeared clearly only in the channels centered at 193 AA and 211 AA as a dome-like enhancement propagating ahead of its associated semi-spherical CME bubble; (2) the density compression of the shock is 1.56 according to radio data and the temperature of the shockis around 2.8 MK; (3) the shock wave first appeared at 05:38 UT, 2 minutes after the associated flare has started and 1 minute after its associated CME bubble appeared;(4) the top of the dome-like shock wave set out from about 1.23 Rodot and the thickness of the shocked layer is ~ 2times10^4 km; (5) the speed of the shock wave is consistent with a slight decrease from about 600 km/s to 550 km/s; (6) the lateral expansion of the shock wave suggests a constant speed around 400 km/s, which varies at different heights and directions. Our findings support the view that the coronal shock wave is driven by the CME bubble, and the on-limb EUV wave is consistent with a fast wave or at least includes the fast wave component.