No Arabic abstract
We studied spicular jets over a plage area and derived their dynamic characteristics using Hinode Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) high-resolution images. The target plage region was near the west limb of the solar disk. This location permitted us to study the dynamics of spicular jets without the overlapping effect of spicular structures along the line of sight. In this work, to increase the ease with which we can identify spicules on the disk, we applied the image processing method `MadMax developed by Koutchmy et al. (1989). It enhances fine, slender structures (like jets), over a diffuse background. We identified 169 spicules over the target plage. This sample permits us to derive statistically reliable results regarding spicular dynamics. The properties of plage spicules can be summarized as follows: (1) In a plage area, we clearly identified spicular jet features. (2) They were shorter in length than the quiet region limb spicules, and followed ballistic motion under constant deceleration. (3) The majority (80%) of the plage spicules showed the cycle of rise and retreat, while 10% of them faded out without a complete retreat phase. (4) The deceleration of the spicule was proportional to the velocity of ejection (i.e. the initial velocity).
In order to investigate the relation between magnetic structures and the signatures of heating in plage regions, we observed a plage region with the He I 1083.0 nm and Si I 1082.7 nm lines on 2018 October 3 using the integral field unit mode of the GREGOR Infrared Spectrograph (GRIS) installed at the GREGOR telescope. During the GRIS observation, the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) obtained spectra of the ultraviolet Mg II doublet emitted from the same region. In the periphery of the plage region, within the limited field of view seen by GRIS, we find that the Mg II radiative flux increases with the magnetic field in the chromosphere with a factor of proportionality of 2.38 times 10^4 erg cm^{-2} s^{-1} G^{-1}. The positive correlation implies that magnetic flux tubes can be heated by Alfven wave turbulence or by collisions between ions and neutral atoms relating to Alfven waves. Within the plage region itself, the radiative flux was large between patches of strong magnetic field strength in the photosphere, or at the edges of magnetic patches. On the other hand, we do not find any significant spatial correlation between the enhanced radiative flux and the chromospheric magnetic field strength or the electric current. In addition to the Alfven wave turbulence or collisions between ions and neutral atoms relating to Alfven waves, other heating mechanisms related to magnetic field perturbations produced by interactions of magnetic flux tubes could be at work in the plage chromosphere.
We gave an extensive study for the quasi-periodic perturbations on the time profiles of the line of sight (LOS) magnetic field in 10x10 sub-areas in a solar plage region (corresponds to a facula on the photosphere). The perturbations are found to be associated with enhancement of He I 10830 A absorption in a moss region, which is connected to loops with million-degree plasma. FFT analysis to the perturbations gives a kind of spectrum similar to that of Doppler velocity: a number of discrete periods around 5 minutes. The amplitudes of the magnetic perturbations are found to be proportional to magnetic field strength over these sub-areas. In addition, magnetic perturbations lag behind a quarter of cycle in phase with respect to the p-mode Doppler velocity. We show that the relationships can be well explained with an MHD solution for the magneto-acoustic oscillations in high-b{eta} plasma. Observational analysis also shows that, for the two regions with the stronger and weaker magnetic field, the perturbations are always anti-phased. All findings show that the magnetic perturbations are actually magneto-acoustic oscillations on the solar surface, the photosphere, powered by p-mode oscillations. The findings may provide a new diagnostic tool for exploring the relationship between magneto-acoustic oscillations and the heating of solar upper atmosphere, as well as their role in helioseismology.
Solar spicules are the fundamental magnetic structures in the chromosphere and considered to play a key role in channelling the chromosphere and corona. Recently, it was suggested by De Pontieu et al. that there were two types of spicules with very different dynamic properties, which were detected by space- time plot technique in the Ca ii H line (3968 A) wavelength from Hinode/SOT observations. Type I spicule, with a 3-7 minute lifetime, undergoes a cycle of upward and downward motion; in contrast, Type II spicule fades away within dozens of seconds, without descending phase. We are motivated by the fact that for a spicule with complicated 3D motion, the space-time plot, which is made through a slit on a fixed position, could not match the spicule behavior all the time and might lose its real life story. By revisiting the same data sets, we identify and trace 105 and 102 spicules in quiet sun (QS) and coronal hole (CH), respectively, and obtain their statistical dynamic properties. First, we have not found a single convincing example of Type II spicules. Secondly, more than 60% of the identified spicules in each region show a complete cycle, i.e., majority spicules are Type I. Thirdly, the lifetime of spicules in QS and CH are 148 s and 112 s, respectively, but there is no fundamental lifetime difference between the spicules in QS and CH reported earlier. Therefore, the suggestion of coronal heating by Type II spicules should be taken with cautions. Subject headings: Sun: chromosphere Sun:transition region Sun:corona
We examine 172 Ang ultra-high-resolution images of a solar plage region from the Hi-C 2.1 (Hi-C) rocket flight of 2018 May 29. Over its five-minute flight, Hi-C resolves a plethora of small-scale dynamic features that appear near noise level in concurrent Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) 171 Ang images. For ten selected events, comparisons with AIA images at other wavelengths and with the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) images indicate that these features are cool (compared to the corona) ejections. Combining Hi-C 172 Ang, AIA 171 Ang, IRIS 1400 Ang, and H$alpha$, we see that these ten cool ejections are similar to the H$alpha$ dynamic fibrils and Ca ii anemone jets found in earlier studies. The front of some of our cool ejections are likely heated, showing emission in IRIS 1400 Ang. On average, these cool ejections have approximate widths: $3.2 pm 2.1$, (projected) maximum heights and velocities: $4.3 pm 2.5$ and $23 pm 6$ km/s, and lifetimes: $6.5 pm 2.4$ min. We consider whether these Hi-C features might result from eruptions of sub-minifilaments (smaller than the minifilaments that erupt to produce coronal jets). Comparisons with SDOs Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) magnetograms do not show magnetic mixed-polarity neutral lines at these events bases, as would be expected for true scaled-do
We propose and employ a novel empirical method for determining chromospheric plage regions, which seems to better isolate plage from its surrounding regions compared to other methods commonly used. We caution that isolating plage from its immediate surroundings must be done with care in order to successfully mitigate statistical biases that, for instance, can impact quantitative comparisons between different chromospheric observables. Using this methodology, our analysis suggests that 1.25 mm wavelength free-free emission in plage regions observed with ALMA/Band6 may not form in the low chromosphere as previously thought, but rather in the upper chromospheric parts of dynamic plage features (such as spicules and other bright structures), i.e., near geometric heights of transition region temperatures. We investigate the high degree of similarity between chromospheric plage features observed in ALMA/Band6 (at 1.25 mm wavelength) and IRIS/Si IV at 1393r{A}. We also show that IRIS/Mg II h and k is not as well correlated with ALMA/Band6 as was previously thought, and we discuss the discrepancies with previous works. Lastly, we report indications for chromospheric heating due to propagating shocks supported by the ALMA/Band6 observations.