Recent observations of sunspots umbra suggested that it may be finely structured at a sub-arcsecond scale representing a mix of hot and cool plasma elements. In this study we report the first detailed observations of the umbral spikes, which are cool
jet-like structures seen in the chromosphere of an umbra. The spikes are cone-shaped features with a typical height of 0.5-1.0 Mm and a width of about 0.1 Mm. Their life time ranges from 2 to 3 min and they tend to re-appear at the same location. The spikes are not associated with photospheric umbral dots and they rather tend to occur above darkest parts of the umbra, where magnetic fields are strongest. The spikes exhibit up and down oscillatory motions and their spectral evolution suggests that they might be driven by upward propagating shocks generated by photospheric oscillations. It is worth noting that triggering of the running penumbral waves seems to occur during the interval when the spikes reach their maximum height.
We used photospheric intensity images and magnetic field measurements from the New Solar Telescope in Big Bear and Helioseismic Magnetic Imager on board Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) to study the the effect that the new small-scale emerging flux i
nduces on solar granulation. We report that emerging flux appears to leave different types of footprint on solar granulation: i) diffuse irregular patches of increased brightness, ii) well defined filament-like structures and accompanied bright points, and iii) bright point-like features that appear inside granules. We suggest that the type of the footprint depends on the intensity of emerging fields. Stronger fields, emerging as a part of large magnetic structure, create on the solar surface a well defined filamentary pattern with bright points at the ends of the filaments, while weak turbulent fields are associated with bright patches inside the host granule.
Using high resolution off-band ha data from the New Solar Telescope and Morlet wavelet analysis technique, we analyzed transverse motions of type II spicules observed near the North Pole of the Sun. Our new findings are that i) some of the observed t
ype II spicules display kink or an inverse Y features, suggesting that their origin may be due to magnetic reconnection, and ii) type II spicules tend to display coherent transverse motions/oscillations. Also, the wavelet analysis detected significant presence of high frequency oscillations in type II spicules, ranging from 30 to 180 s with the the average period of 90 s. We conclude that at least some of type II spicules and their coherent transverse motions may be caused by reconnection between large scale fields rooted in the intergranular lanes and and small-scale emerging dipoles, a process that is know to generate high frequency kink mode MHD waves propagating along the magnetic field lines.
Low and mid-latitude coronal holes (CHs) observed on the Sun during the current solar activity minimum (from September 21, 2006, Carrington rotation (CR) 2048, until June 26, 2009 (CR 2084)) were analyzed using {it SOHO}/EIT and STEREO-A SECCHI EUVI
data. From both the observations and Potential Field Source Surface (PFSS) modeling, we find that the area occupied by CHs inside a belt of $pm 40^circ$ around the solar equator is larger in the current 2007 solar minimum relative to the similar phase of the previous 1996 solar minimum. The enhanced CH area is related to a recurrent appearance of five persistent CHs, which survived during 7-27 solar rotations. Three of the CHs are of positive magnetic polarity and two are negative. The most long-lived CH was being formed during 2 days and existed for 27 rotations. This CH was associated with fast solar wind at 1 AU of approximately 620$pm 40$ km s$^{-1}$. The 3D MHD modeling for this time period shows an open field structure above this CH. We conclude that the global magnetic field of the Sun possessed a multi-pole structure during this time period. Calculation of the harmonic power spectrum of the solar magnetic field demonstrates a greater prevalence of multi-pole components over the dipole component in the 2007 solar minimum compared to the 1996 solar minimum. The unusual large separation between the dipole and multi-pole components is due to the very low magnitude of the dipole component, which is three times lower than that in the previous 1996 solar minimum.
