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Abstract Waves and oscillations are important solar phenomena, not only because they can propagate and dissipate energy in the chromosphere, but also because they carry information about the structure of the atmosphere in which they propagate. The nature of the 3 minute oscillations observed in the umbral region of sunspots is considered to be an effect of propagation of magnetohydrodynamic waves upward from below the photosphere. We present a study of sunspot oscillations and wave propagation in NOAA Active Region 12470 using an approximately 1 hr long data set acquired on 2015 December 17 by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the Goode Solar Telescope (GST) operating at the Big Bear Solar Observatory, the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory, and the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph. The ALMA data are unique in providing a time series of direct temperature measurements in the sunspot chromosphere. The 2 s cadence of ALMA images allows us to well resolve the 3 minute periods typical of sunspot oscillations in the chromosphere. Fourier analysis is applied to ALMA Band 3 (∼100 GHz, ∼3 mm) and GST H α data sets to obtain power spectra as well as oscillation phase information. We analyzed properties of the wave propagation by combining multiple wavelengths that probe physical parameters of solar atmosphere at different heights. We find that the ALMA temperature fluctuations are consistent with that expected for a propagating acoustic wave, with a slight asymmetry indicating nonlinear steepening.
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Observations of Locally Excited Waves in the Low Solar Atmosphere Using the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope
Abstract We present an interpretation of the recent Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) observations of propagating wave fronts in the lower solar atmosphere. Using MPS/University of Chicago MHD radiative magnetohydrodynamic simulations spanning the solar photosphere, the overshoot region, and the lower chromosphere, we identify three acoustic-wave source mechanisms, each occur at a different atmospheric height. We synthesize the DKIST Visible Broadband ImagerG-band, blue-continuum, and CaiiKsignatures of these waves at high spatial and temporal resolution, and conclude that the wave fronts observed by DKIST likely originate from acoustic sources at the top of the solar photosphere overshoot region and in the chromosphere proper. The overall importance of these local sources to the atmospheric energy and momentum budget of the solar atmosphere is unknown, but one of the excitation mechanisms identified (upward propagating shock interaction with down-welling chromospheric plasma resulting in acoustic radiation) may be an important shock dissipation mechanism. Additionally, the observed wave fronts may prove useful for ultralocal helioseismological inversions and promise to play an important diagnostic role at multiple atmospheric heights.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1841100
- PAR ID:
- 10531152
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.3847
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The Astrophysical Journal Letters
- Volume:
- 971
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 2041-8205
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: Article No. L1
- Size(s):
- Article No. L1
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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