A comparison of the active region upflow and core properties using simultaneous spectroscopic observations from IRIS and Hinode

Abstract

The origin of the slow solar wind is still an open issue. It has been suggested that upflows at the edge of active regions (AR) can contribute to the slow solar wind. Here, we compared the upflow region and the AR core and studied how the plasma properties change from the chromosphere via the transition region to the corona. We studied limb-to-limb observations NOAA 12687 (14th - 25th Nov 2017). We analysed spectroscopic data simultaneously obtained from IRIS and Hinode/EIS in six spectral lines. We studied the mutual relationships between the plasma properties for each emission line, as well as comparing the plasma properties between the neighbouring formation temperature lines. To find the most characteristic spectra, we classified the spectra in each wavelength using the machine learning technique k-means. We found that in the upflow region the Doppler velocities of the coronal lines are strongly correlated, but the transition region and coronal lines show no correlation. However, their fluxes are strongly correlated. The upflow region has lower density and lower temperature than the AR core. In the upflow region, the Doppler and non-thermal velocity show a strong correlation in the coronal lines, but the correlation is not seen in the AR core. At the boundary between the upflow region and the AR core, the upflow region shows an increase in the coronal non-thermal velocity, the emission obtained from the DEM, and the domination of the redshifted regions in the chromosphere. The obtained results suggest that at least three parallel mechanisms generate the plasma upflow: (1) the reconnection between closed loops and open magnetic field lines in the lower corona or upper chromosphere; (2) the reconnection between the chromospheric small-scale loops and open magnetic field; (3) the expansion of the magnetic field lines that allows the chromospheric plasma to escape to the solar corona.

arXiv comment17 pages, 10 figures, accepted to publication in A&A

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• On the formation of solar wind & switchbacks, and quiet Sun heating
• Solar surges related to UV bursts: Characterization through k-means, inversions and density diagnostics
• Coronal Abundances in an Active Region: Evolution and Underlying Chromospheric and Transition Region Properties
• Shape-based clustering of synthetic Stokes profiles using k-means and k-Shape
• Slow solar wind sources. High-resolution observations with a quadrature view
• A spectroscopic investigation of thermal instability for cylindrical equilibria with background flow
• Dynamics in the transition region beneath active region upflows viewed by IRIS
• Active region upflows in various coronal structures and their coupling to the lower atmosphere