skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Title: Observations of pores and surrounding regions with CO 4.66 μm lines by BBSO/CYRA
Context. Solar observations of carbon monoxide (CO) indicate the existence of lower-temperature gas in the lower solar chromosphere. We present an observation of pores, and quiet-Sun, and network magnetic field regions with CO 4.66 μm lines by the Cryogenic Infrared Spectrograph (CYRA) at Big Bear Solar Observatory. Aims. We used the strong CO lines at around 4.66 μm to understand the properties of the thermal structures of lower solar atmosphere in different solar features with various magnetic field strengths. Methods. Different observations with different instruments were included: CO 4.66 μm imaging spectroscopy by CYRA, Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) 1700 Å images, Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) continuum images, line-of-sight (LOS) magnetograms, and vector magnetograms. The data from 3D radiation magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation with the Bifrost code are also employed for the first time to be compared with the observation. We used the Rybicki-Hummer (RH) code to synthesize the CO line profiles in the network regions. Results. The CO 3-2 R14 line center intensity changes to be either enhanced or diminished with increasing magnetic field strength, which should be caused by different heating effects in magnetic flux tubes with different sizes. We find several “cold bubbles” in the CO 3-2 R14 line center intensity images, which can be classified into two types. One type is located in the quiet-Sun regions without magnetic fields. The other type, which has rarely been reported in the past, is near or surrounded by magnetic fields. Notably, some are located at the edge of the magnetic network. The two kinds of cold bubbles and the relationship between cold bubble intensities and network magnetic field strength are both reproduced by the 3D MHD simulation with the Bifrost and RH codes. The simulation also shows that there is a cold plasma blob near the network magnetic fields, causing the observed cold bubbles seen in the CO 3-2 R14 line center image. Conclusions. Our observation and simulation illustrate that the magnetic field plays a vital role in the generation of some CO cold bubbles.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1821294 2108235
PAR ID:
10391479
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Volume:
669
ISSN:
0004-6361
Page Range / eLocation ID:
A79
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. Abstract We used 29 high-resolution line-of-sight magnetograms acquired with the Goode Solar Telescope (GST) in a quiet-Sun area to extrapolate a series of potential field configurations and study their time variations. The study showed that there are regions that consistently exhibit changes in loop connectivity, whereas other vast areas do not show such changes. Analysis of the topological features of the potential fields indicates that the photospheric footprint of the separatrix between open- and closed-loop systems closely matches the roots of rapid blue- and redshifted excursions, which are disk counterparts of type II spicules. There is a tendency for the footpoints of the observed Hαfeatures to be cospatial with the footpoints of the loops that most frequently change their connectivity, while the area occupied by the open fields that did not show any significant and persistent connectivity changes is void of prominent jet and spicular activity. We also detected and tracked magnetic elements using the Southwest Automatic Magnetic Identification Suite and GST magnetograms, which allowed us to construct artificial magnetograms and calculate the corresponding potential field configurations. Analysis of the artificial data showed tendencies similar to those found for the observed data. The present study suggests that a significant amount of chromospheric activity observed in the far wings of the Hαspectral line may be generated by reconnecting closed-loop systems and canopy fields consisting of “open” field lines. 
    more » « less
  2. Abstract Quiet-Sun regions cover most of the Sun's surface; their magnetic fields contribute significantly to solar chromospheric and coronal heating. However, characterizing the magnetic fields of the quiet Sun is challenging due to their weak polarization signal. The 4 m Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) is expected to improve our understanding of quiet-Sun magnetism. In this paper, we assess the diagnostic capability of the Diffraction Limited Near Infrared Spectropolarimeter (DL-NIRSP) instrument on DKIST for the energy transport processes in the quiet-Sun photosphere. To this end, we synthesize high-resolution, high-cadence Stokes profiles of the Fei630 nm lines using a realistic magnetohydrodynamic simulation, degrade them to emulate the DKIST/DL-NIRSP observations, and subsequently infer the vector magnetic and velocity fields. For the assessment, we first verify that a widely used flow tracking algorithm, the Differential Affine Velocity Estimator for Vector Magnetograms, works well for estimating the large-scale (>200 km) photospheric velocity fields with these high-resolution data. We then examine how the accuracy of the inferred velocity depends on the temporal resolution. Finally, we investigate the reliability of the Poynting flux estimate and its dependence on the model assumptions. The results suggest that the unsigned Poynting flux, estimated with existing schemes, can account for about 71.4% and 52.6% of the reference ground truth at log τ = 0.0 and log τ = 1 . However, the net Poynting flux tends to be significantly underestimated. The error mainly arises from the underestimated contribution of the horizontal motion. We discuss the implications for DKIST observations. 
    more » « less
  3. Abstract The National Science Foundation’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) will provide high-resolution, multiline spectropolarimetric observations that are poised to revolutionize our understanding of the Sun. Given the massive data volume, novel inference techniques are required to unlock its full potential. Here, we provide an overview of our “SPIn4D” project, which aims to develop deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for estimating the physical properties of the solar photosphere from DKIST spectropolarimetric observations. We describe the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) modeling and the Stokes profile synthesis pipeline that produce the simulated output and input data, respectively. These data will be used to train a set of CNNs that can rapidly infer the four-dimensional MHD state vectors by exploiting the spatiotemporally coherent patterns in the Stokes profile time series. Specifically, our radiative MHD model simulates the small-scale dynamo actions that are prevalent in quiet-Sun and plage regions. Six cases with different mean magnetic fields have been explored; each case covers six solar-hours, totaling 109 TB in data volume. The simulation domain covers at least 25 × 25 × 8 Mm, with 16 × 16 × 12 km spatial resolution, extending from the upper convection zone up to the temperature minimum region. The outputs are stored at a 40 s cadence. We forward model the Stokes profile of two sets of Feilines at 630 and 1565 nm, which will be simultaneously observed by DKIST and can better constrain the parameter variations along the line of sight. The MHD model output and the synthetic Stokes profiles are publicly available, with 13.7 TB in the initial release. 
    more » « less
  4. Abstract Atmospheric gravity waves (AGWs) are low-frequency, buoyancy-driven waves that are generated by turbulent convection and propagate obliquely throughout the solar atmosphere. Their proposed energy contribution to the lower solar atmosphere and sensitivity to atmospheric parameters (e.g., magnetic fields and radiative damping) highlight their diagnostic potential. We investigate AGWs near a quiet-Sun disk center region using multiwavelength data from the Interferometric Bidimensional Spectrometer and the Solar Dynamics Observatory. These observations showcase the complex wave behavior present in the entire acoustic-gravity wave spectrum. Using Fourier spectral analysis and local helioseismology techniques on simultaneously observed line core Doppler velocity and intensity fluctuations, we study both the vertical and horizontal properties of AGWs. Propagating AGWs with perpendicular group and phase velocities are detected at the expected temporal and spatial scales throughout the lower solar atmosphere. We also find previously unobserved, varied phase difference distributions among our velocity and intensity diagnostic combinations. Time–distance analysis indicates that AGWs travel with an average group speed of 4.5 km s−1, which is only partially described by a simple simulation, suggesting that high-frequency AGWs dominate the signal. Analysis of the median magnetic field (4.2 G) suggests that propagating AGWs are not significantly affected by quiet-Sun photospheric magnetic fields. Our results illustrate the importance of multiheight observations and the necessity of future work to properly characterize this observed behavior. 
    more » « less
  5. Abstract We compare a method for inferring the photospheric vector magnetic field using only spectroscopy to a conventional method based on polarimetry. The magnetic field strengthBand inclination angle can be inferred from the Zeeman splitting using only StokesI. We applied this method to a sunspot observed with the Vacuum Tower Telescope and compared the results to vector magnetograms from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on the Solar Dynamics Observatory, which used a polarimetric inversion. The spectroscopic inversion tends to show higher values inBcompared to the polarimetric data. In quiet regions the discrepancy inBwas typically a factor of two. In the strong sunspot fields, the differences averaged ≈22%. These discrepancies are significant, but comparable to those typically found among magnetograms from different instruments. Our results support the use of the spectroscopic inversion technique to provide a fast and reasonable estimate ofB. 
    more » « less