No Arabic abstract
We report on observations of a solar jet propagating along coronal loops taken by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), the Interface Region Imaging Spectragraph (IRIS) and 1-m New Vacuum Solar Telescope (NVST). The ejecta of the jet consist of multi-thermal components and propagate with a speed greater than 100 km/s. Brightenings are found in the remote footpoints of the coronal loops having compact and round-shape in the Halpha images. The emission peak of the remote brightening in the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) 94 AA passband lags 60 s behind that in the jet base. The brightenings in the remote footpoints are believed to be consequences of heating by nonthermal electrons, MHD waves and/or conduction front generated by the magnetic reconnection processes of the jet. The heating in the remote footpoints leads to extension of the brightening along the loops toward the jet base, which is believed to be the chromospheric evaporation. This apparently acts as a brake on the ejecta, leading to a deceleration in the range from 1.5 to 3 km s$^{-2}$ with an error of $sim1.0$,km s$^{-2}$ when the chromospheric evaporation and the ejecta meet at locations near the loop apexes. The dynamics of this jet allows a unique opportunity to diagnose the chromospheric evaporation from the remote footpoints, from which we deduce a velocity in the range of 330--880 km/s.
Electric currents play a critical role in the triggering of solar flares and their evolution. The aim of the present paper is to test whether the surface electric current has a surface or subsurface fixed source as predicts the circuit approach of flare physics, or is the response of the surface magnetic field to the evolution of the coronal magnetic field as the MHD approach proposes. Out of all 19 X-class flares as observed by SDO from 2011 to 2016 near the disk center, we analyzed the only 9 eruptive flares for which clear ribbon-hooks were identifiable. Flare ribbons with hooks are considered to be the footprints of eruptive flux ropes in MHD flare models. For the first time, fine measurements of time-evolution of electric currents inside the hooks in the observations as well as in the OHM 3D MHD simulation are performed. Our analysis shows a decrease of the electric current in the area surrounded by the ribbon hooks during and after the eruption. We interpret the decrease of the electric currents as due to the expansion of the flux rope in the corona during the eruption. Our analysis brings a new contribution to the standard flare model in 3D.
Magnetic fields permeate the entire solar atmosphere weaving an extremely complex pattern on both local and global scales. In order to understand the nature of this tangled web of magnetic fields, its magnetic skeleton, which forms the boundaries between topologically distinct flux domains, may be determined. The magnetic skeleton consists of null points, separatrix surfaces, spines and separators. The skeleton is often used to clearly visualize key elements of the magnetic configuration, but parts of the skeleton are also locations where currents and waves may collect and dissipate. In this review, the nature of the magnetic skeleton on both global and local scales, over solar cycle time scales, is explained. The behaviour of wave pulses in the vicinity of both nulls and separators is discussed and so too is the formation of current layers and reconnection at the same features. Each of these processes leads to heating of the solar atmosphere, but collectively do they provide enough heat, spread over a wide enough area, to explain the energy losses throughout the solar atmosphere? Here, we consider this question for the three different solar regions: active regions, open-field regions and the quiet Sun. We find that the heating of active regions and open-field regions is highly unlikely to be due to reconnection or wave dissipation at topological features, but it is possible that these may play a role in the heating of the quiet Sun. In active regions, the absence of a complex topology may play an important role in allowing large energies to build up and then, subsequently, be explosively released in the form of a solar flare. Additionally, knowledge of the intricate boundaries of open-field regions (which the magnetic skeleton provides) could be very important in determining the main acceleration mechanism(s) of the solar wind.
The analysis of a hot loop oscillation event using SOHO/SUMER, GOES/SXI, and RHESSI observations is presented. Damped Doppler shift oscillations were detected in the Fe XIX line by SUMER, and interpreted as a fundamental standing slow mode. The evolution of soft X-ray emission from GOES/SXI and hard X-ray sources from RHESSI suggests that the oscillations of a large loop are triggered by a small flare, which may be produced by interaction (local reconnection) of this large loop with a small loop at its footpoint. This study provides clear evidence supporting our early conjecture that the slow-mode standing waves in hot coronal loops are excited by impulsive heating (small or microflares) at the loops footpoint.
We simulate several magnetic reconnection processes in the low solar chromosphere/photosphere, the radiation cooling, heat conduction and ambipolar diffusion are all included. Our numerical results indicate that both the high temperature($ gtrsim 8times10^4$~K) and low temperature($sim 10^4$~K) magnetic reconnection events can happen in the low solar atmosphere ($100sim600$~km above the solar surface). The plasma $beta$ controlled by plasma density and magnetic fields is one important factor to decide how much the plasma can be heated up. The low temperature event is formed in a high $beta$ magnetic reconnection process, Joule heating is the main mechanism to heat plasma and the maximum temperature increase is only several thousand Kelvin. The high temperature explosions can be generated in a low $beta$ magnetic reconnection process, slow and fast-mode shocks attached at the edges of the well developed plasmoids are the main physical mechanisms to heat the plasma from several thousand Kelvin to over $8times10^4$~K. Gravity in the low chromosphere can strongly hinder the plasmoind instability and the formation of slow-mode shocks in a vertical current sheet. Only small secondary islands are formed; these islands, however, are not well developed as those in the horizontal current sheets. This work can be applied for understanding the heating mechanism in the low solar atmosphere and could possibly be extended to explain the formation of common low temperature EBs ($sim10^4$~K) and the high tenperature IRIS bombs ($gtrsim 8times10^4$) in the future.
The Multi-slit Solar Explorer (MUSE) is a proposed NASA MIDEX mission, currently in Phase A, composed of a multi-slit EUV spectrograph (in three narrow spectral bands centered around 171A, 284A, and 108A) and an EUV context imager (in two narrow passbands around 195A and 304A). MUSE will provide unprecedented spectral and imaging diagnostics of the solar corona at high spatial (<0.5 arcsec), and temporal resolution (down to ~0.5s) thanks to its innovative multi-slit design. By obtaining spectra in 4 bright EUV lines (Fe IX 171A , Fe XV 284A, Fe XIX-Fe XXI 108A) covering a wide range of transition region and coronal temperatures along 37 slits simultaneously, MUSE will for the first time be able to freeze (at a cadence as short as 10 seconds) with a spectroscopic raster the evolution of the dynamic coronal plasma over a wide range of scales: from the spatial scales on which energy is released (~0.5 arcsec) to the large-scale often active-region size (170 arcsec x 170 arcsec) atmospheric response. We use advanced numerical modeling to showcase how MUSE will constrain the properties of the solar atmosphere on the spatio-temporal scales (~0.5 arcsec, ~20 seconds) and large field-of-view on which various state-of-the-art models of the physical processes that drive coronal heating, solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) make distinguishing and testable predictions. We describe how the synergy between MUSE, the single-slit, high-resolution Solar-C EUVST spectrograph, and ground-based observatories (DKIST and others) can address how the solar atmosphere is energized, and the critical role MUSE plays because of the multi-scale nature of the physical processes involved. In this first paper, we focus on how comparisons between MUSE observations and theoretical models will significantly further our understanding of coronal heating mechanisms.