The generation and damping of propagating MHD kink waves in the solar atmosphere

Abstract

The source of the non-thermal energy required for the heating of the upper solar atmosphere to temperatures in excess of a million degrees and the acceleration of the solar wind to hundreds of kilometres per second is still unclear. One such mechanism for providing the required energy flux is incompressible torsional Alfvén and kink magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves, which are magnetically dominated waves supported by the Sun's pervasive and complex magnetic field. In particular, propagating MHD kink waves have recently been observed to be ubiquitous throughout the solar atmosphere, but, until now, critical details of the transport of the kink wave energy throughout the Sun's atmosphere were unclear. Here, the ubiquity of the waves is exploited for statistical studies in the highly dynamic solar chromosphere. This large-scale investigation allows for the determination of the chromospheric kink wave velocity power spectra, a missing link necessary for determining the energy transport between the photosphere and corona. Crucially, the power spectra contains evidence for horizontal photospheric motions being the main mechanism for kink wave generation in the quiescent Sun. In addition, a comparison to measured coronal power spectra is provided, revealing frequency-dependent transmission profiles suggesting there is enhanced damping of kink waves in the lower corona.

In Press ApJ - March 2014

References in corpus (11)

• Self-consistent Coronal Heating and Solar Wind Acceleration from Anisotropic Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence
• Alfven Waves in the Lower Solar Atmosphere
• Observations of ubiquitous compressive waves in the Sun's chromosphere
• Three Dimensional MHD Wave Propagation and Conversion to Alfven Waves near the Solar Surface. I. Direct Numerical Solution
• Coupling from the photosphere to the chromosphere and the corona
• Statistical properties of the Disk Counterparts of Type II Spicules from simultaneous observations of RBEs in Ca II 8542 and Hα
• Dynamics of the solar magnetic bright points derived from their horizontal motions
• The Temperature and Density Structure of the Solar Corona. I. Observations of the Quiet Sun with the EUV Imaging Spectrometer (EIS) on Hinode
• Hi-C & AIA observations of transverse MHD waves in active regions
• A statistical study of transverse oscillations in a quiescent prominence
• Twisting Flux Tubes as a cause of Micro-Flaring Activity

Cited by in corpus (40)

• Multiwavelength studies of MHD waves in the solar chromosphere: An overview of recent results
• The European Solar Telescope
• A global view of velocity fluctuations in the corona below 1.3 $R_{\odot }$ with CoMP
• On fibrils and field lines: The nature of H$\alpha$ fibrils in the solar chromosphere
• Magnetohydrodynamic kink waves in nonuniform solar flux tubes: phase mixing and energy cascade to small scales
• Waves in the lower solar atmosphere: the dawn of next-generation solar telescopes
• Transverse Oscillations in Slender Ca II H Fibrils Observed with Sunrise/SuFI
• Contribution of mode coupling and phase-mixing of Alfvén waves to coronal heating
• Energetics of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability induced by transverse waves in twisted coronal loops
• Waves in Solar Coronal Loops
• Non-linear propagation of kink waves to the solar chromosphere
• High Frequency Waves in Chromospheric Spicules
• Observational evidence for buffeting induced kink waves in solar magnetic elements
• An Automated Algorithm for Identifying and Tracking Transverse Waves in Solar Images
• The Frequency-dependent Damping of Slow Magnetoacoustic Waves in a Sunspot Umbral Atmosphere
• Weak damping of propagating MHD kink waves in the quiescent corona
• Polarised kink waves in magnetic elements: evidence for chromospheric helical waves
• MHD wave modes resolved in fine-scale chromospheric magnetic structures
• Contribution of observed multi frequency spectrum of Alfvén waves to coronal heating
• Chromospheric and Coronal Wave Generation in a Magnetic Flux Sheath
• Novel data analysis techniques in coronal seismology
• Magnetic shocks and substructures excited by torsional Alfvén wave interactions in merging expanding flux tubes
• High-frequency spicule oscillations generated via mode conversion
• High-resolution observations of active region moss and its dynamics
• Dynamics of internetwork chromospheric fibrils: Basic properties and MHD kink waves
• Magneto-seismological insights into the penumbral chromosphere and evidence for wave damping in spicules
• Transverse motions in sunspot super-penumbral fibrils
• Spectroscopic evidence of Alfvén wave damping in the off-limb solar corona
• Ultra-high-resolution Observations of MHD Waves in Photospheric Magnetic Structures
• High-frequency oscillations in small chromospheric bright features observed with ALMA
• Unveiling the True Nature of Plasma Dynamics from the Reference Frame of a Super-penumbral Fibril
• The formation and heating of chromospheric fibrils in a radiation-MHD simulation
• Shocks and instabilities in the partially ionised solar atmosphere
• Oscillatory behavior of chromospheric fine structures in a network and a semi-active regions
• Power distribution of oscillations in the atmosphere of a plage region: Joint observations with ALMA, IRIS and SDO
• Analysis of Pseudo-Lyapunov Exponents of Solar Convection Using State-of-the-Art Observations
• Transverse oscillations in 3D along Ca II K bright fibrils in the solar chromosphere
• Concurrent Kink and Sausage Waves in A Crescent Shaped Structure Over A Limb Prominence
• Active region upflows in various coronal structures and their coupling to the lower atmosphere
• The Sun at millimeter wavelengths V. Magnetohydrodynamic waves in a fibrillar structure