scholarly journals High-frequency oscillations in small chromospheric bright features observed with Atacama Large Millimetre/Submillimetre Array

Author(s):  
J. C. Guevara Gómez ◽  
S. Jafarzadeh ◽  
S. Wedemeyer ◽  
M. Szydlarski ◽  
M. Stangalini ◽  
...  

We report detection of oscillations in brightness temperature, size and horizontal velocity of three small bright features in the chromosphere of a plage/enhanced-network region. The observations, which were taken with high temporal resolution (i.e. 2 s cadence) with the Atacama large millimetre/ submillimetre array (ALMA) in Band 3 (centred at 3 mm; 100 GHz), exhibit three small-scale features with oscillatory behaviour with different, but overlapping, distributions of period on the order of, on average, 90 ± 22 s, 110 ± 12 s and 66 ± 23 s, respectively. We find anti-correlations between perturbations in brightness, temperature and size of the three features, which suggest the presence of fast sausage-mode waves in these small structures. In addition, the detection of transverse oscillations (although with a larger uncertainty) may also suggest the presence of Alfvénic oscillations which are likely representative of kink waves. This work demonstrates the diagnostic potential of high-cadence observations with ALMA for detecting high-frequency magnetohydrodynamic waves in the solar chromosphere. Such waves can potentially channel a vast amount of energy into the outer atmosphere of the Sun. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue ‘High-resolution wave dynamics in the lower solar atmosphere’.

2020 ◽  
Vol 635 ◽  
pp. A71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sven Wedemeyer ◽  
Mikolaj Szydlarski ◽  
Shahin Jafarzadeh ◽  
Henrik Eklund ◽  
Juan Camilo Guevara Gomez ◽  
...  

Context. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) started regular observations of the Sun in 2016, first offering receiver Band 3 at wavelengths near 3 mm (100 GHz) and Band 6 at wavelengths around 1.25 mm (239 GHz). Aims. Here we present an initial study of one of the first ALMA Band 3 observations of the Sun. Our aim is to characterise the diagnostic potential of brightness temperatures measured with ALMA on the Sun. Methods. The observation covers a duration of 48 min at a cadence of 2 s targeting a quiet Sun region at disc-centre. Corresponding time series of brightness temperature maps are constructed with the first version of the Solar ALMA Pipeline and compared to simultaneous observations with the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Results. The angular resolution of the observations is set by the synthesised beam, an elliptical Gaussian that is approximately 1.4″ × 2.1″ in size. The ALMA maps exhibit network patches, internetwork regions, and elongated thin features that are connected to large-scale magnetic loops, as confirmed by a comparison with SDO maps. The ALMA Band 3 maps correlate best with the SDO/AIA 171 Å, 131 Å, and 304 Å channels in that they exhibit network features and, although very weak in the ALMA maps, imprints of large-scale loops. A group of compact magnetic loops is very clearly visible in ALMA Band 3. The brightness temperatures in the loop tops reach values of about 8000−9000 K and in extreme moments up to 10 000 K. Conclusions. ALMA Band 3 interferometric observations from early observing cycles already reveal temperature differences in the solar chromosphere. The weak imprint of magnetic loops and the correlation with the 171, 131, and 304 SDO channels suggests, however, that the radiation mapped in ALMA Band 3 might have contributions from a wider range of atmospheric heights than previously assumed, but the exact formation height of Band 3 needs to be investigated in more detail. The absolute brightness temperature scale as set by total power measurements remains less certain and must be improved in the future. Despite these complications and the limited angular resolution, ALMA Band 3 observations have a large potential for quantitative studies of the small-scale structure and dynamics of the solar chromosphere.


2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (S247) ◽  
pp. 312-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Andic ◽  
M. Mathioudakis ◽  
F. P. Keenan ◽  
D. B. Jess ◽  
D. S. Bloomfield

AbstractHigh frequency acoustic waves have been suggested as a source of mechanical heating in the quiet solar chromosphere. To investigate this, we have observed intensity oscillations of several lines in the frequency interval 1.64-70mHz using data from the VTT Tenerife and the Dunn Solar Telescope at the National Solar Observatory. Our analysis of Fe i 543.45 nm, Fe i 543.29 nm and the G-band, indicate that the majority of oscillations are connected with the magnetic fields and do not provide sufficient mechanical flux for the heating of the chromosphere. This correlation is also observed in quiet Sun areas.


Author(s):  
Henrik Eklund ◽  
Sven Wedemeyer ◽  
Ben Snow ◽  
David B. Jess ◽  
Shahin Jafarzadeh ◽  
...  

Observations at millimetre wavelengths provide a valuable tool to study the small-scale dynamics in the solar chromosphere. We evaluate the physical conditions of the atmosphere in the presence of a propagating shock wave and link that to the observable signatures in mm-wavelength radiation, providing valuable insights into the underlying physics of mm-wavelength observations. A realistic numerical simulation from the three-dimensional radiative magnetohydrodynamic code Bifrost is used to interpret changes in the atmosphere caused by shock wave propagation. High-cadence (1 s) time series of brightness temperature ( T b ) maps are calculated with the Advanced Radiative Transfer code at the wavelengths 1.309 mm and 1.204 mm, which represents opposite sides of spectral band 6 of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). An example of shock wave propagation is presented. The brightness temperatures show a strong shock wave signature with large variation in formation height between approximately 0.7 and 1.4 Mm. The results demonstrate that millimetre brightness temperatures efficiently track upwardly propagating shock waves in the middle chromosphere. In addition, we show that the gradient of the brightness temperature between wavelengths within ALMA band 6 can potentially be used as a diagnostics tool in understanding the small-scale dynamics at the sampled layers. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue ‘High-resolution wave dynamics in the lower solar atmosphere’.


2019 ◽  
Vol 489 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-88
Author(s):  
A. G. Fatyanov ◽  
V. Yu. Burmin

It is generally accepted that PKP‑waves precursors, which are observed on a real data ahead of PKP‑waves, are explained by scattering on small-scale inhomogeneities in the lower mantle. In this paper, a stable analytical solution (without interference) was obtained for the wave field of longitudinal waves in a layered (discrete) ball of planetary size. The calculations of the total wave field, rays and travel-time curves of longitudinal waves for the spherical model of the Earth AK135 with a carrier frequency of 1 hertz are presented. The analytical solution showed that at angles smaller than 145 degrees ahead of the PKP‑waves, low-amplitude waves appear, with a higher frequency of about 1,3 hertz. Indeed, these high-frequency oscillations have the form characteristic for waves scattered at a certain object. The ray pattern and the travel-time graph show that these high-frequency oscillations are due to exclusively to the spherical geometry of the Earth. This could be explained by the interference of refracted and reflected longitudinal waves in the bottom of a discrete outer core. This field propagates even further towards smaller angles due to the interference of diffraction waves.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Vicari

<p>Highly idealized model studies suggest that convectively generated internal gravity waves in the troposphere with horizontal wavelengths on the order of a few kilometers may affect the lifetime, spacing, and depth of clouds and convection. To answer whether such a convection-wave coupling occurs in the real atmosphere, one needs to find corresponding events in observations. In general, the study of high-frequency internal gravity wave-related phenomena in the troposphere is a challenging task because they are usually small-scale and intermittent. To overcome case-by-case studies, it is desirable to have an automatic method to analyze as much data as possible and provide enough independent and diverse evidence.<br>Here, we focus on brightness temperature satellite images, in particular so-called satellite water vapor channels. These channels measure the radiation at wavelengths corresponding to the energy emitted by water vapor and provide cloud-independent observations of internal gravity waves, in contrast to visible and other infrared satellite channels where one relies on the wave impacts on clouds. In addition, since these water vapor channels are sensitive to certain vertical layers in the troposphere, combining the images also reveals some vertical structure of the observed waves.<br>We propose an algorithm based on local Fourier analyses to extract information about high-frequency wave patterns in given brightness temperature images. This method allows automatic detection and analysis of many wave patterns in a given domain at once, resulting in a climatology that provides an initial observational basis for further research. Using data from the instrument ABI on board the satellite GOES-16 during the field campaign EUREC<sup>4</sup>A, we demonstrate the capabilities and limitations of the method. Furthermore, we present the respective climatology of the detected waves and discuss approaches based on this to address the initial question.</p>


Author(s):  
S. Jafarzadeh ◽  
S. Wedemeyer ◽  
B. Fleck ◽  
M. Stangalini ◽  
D. B. Jess ◽  
...  

By direct measurements of the gas temperature, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has yielded a new diagnostic tool to study the solar chromosphere. Here, we present an overview of the brightness-temperature fluctuations from several high-quality and high-temporal-resolution (i.e. 1 and 2 s cadence) time series of images obtained during the first 2 years of solar observations with ALMA, in Band 3 and Band 6, centred at around 3 mm (100 GHz) and 1.25 mm (239 GHz), respectively. The various datasets represent solar regions with different levels of magnetic flux. We perform fast Fourier and Lomb–Scargle transforms to measure both the spatial structuring of dominant frequencies and the average global frequency distributions of the oscillations (i.e. averaged over the entire field of view). We find that the observed frequencies significantly vary from one dataset to another, which is discussed in terms of the solar regions captured by the observations (i.e. linked to their underlying magnetic topology). While the presence of enhanced power within the frequency range 3–5 mHz is found for the most magnetically quiescent datasets, lower frequencies dominate when there is significant influence from strong underlying magnetic field concentrations (present inside and/or in the immediate vicinity of the observed field of view). We discuss here a number of reasons which could possibly contribute to the power suppression at around 5.5 mHz in the ALMA observations. However, it remains unclear how other chromospheric diagnostics (with an exception of H α line-core intensity) are unaffected by similar effects, i.e. they show very pronounced 3-min oscillations dominating the dynamics of the chromosphere, whereas only a very small fraction of all the pixels in the 10 ALMA datasets analysed here show peak power near 5.5 mHz. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue ‘High-resolution wave dynamics in the lower solar atmosphere’.


2019 ◽  
Vol 632 ◽  
pp. A96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Rutten ◽  
Luc H. M. Rouppe van der Voort ◽  
Bart De Pontieu

Even in quiet areas underneath coronal holes the solar chromosphere contains ubiquitous heating events. They tend to be small scale and short lived, hence difficult to identify. Here we do not address their much-debated contribution to outer-atmosphere heating, but their aftermaths. We performed a statistical analysis of high-resolution observations in the Balmer Hα line to suggest that many slender dark Hα fibrils spreading out from network represent cooling gas that outlines tracks of preceding rapid type II spicule events or smaller similar but as yet unresolved heating agents in which the main gas constituent, hydrogen, ionizes at least partially. Subsequent recombination then causes dark Hα fibrils enhanced by nonequilibrium overopacity. We suggest that the extraordinary fibrilar appearance of the Hα chromosphere around network results from intermittent, frequent small-scale prior heating.


2006 ◽  
pp. 27-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Andjic

High frequency acoustic oscillations were suggested as the source of mechanical heating in the chromosphere. In this work the radial component of the oscillations in the frequency interval 3 mHz to 22 mHz are investigated. The observations were performed using "D spectrometry on the Fe I neutral spectral line at 543:45 nm. The high frequency oscillations of different frequencies appear to be associated with different spatial scales. It seems that different sources produce high and low frequency acoustic oscillations.


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