Evidence of ubiquitous Alfvén pulses transporting energy from the photosphere to the upper chromosphere.

Nat Commun

Solar Physics and Space Plasma Research Centre (SP2RC), School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S3 7RH, UK.

Published: August 2019

AI Article Synopsis

  • The temperature increase from the solar photosphere to the corona poses a major challenge in plasma-astrophysics.
  • Observations reveal that Alfvén pulses, generated by intensity swirls in the solar photosphere, may transport energy upwards to the chromosphere.
  • While these pulses carry enough energy to potentially offset energy losses in the chromosphere, whether this energy is actually dissipated to cause heating is still uncertain.

Article Abstract

The multi-million degree temperature increase from the middle to the upper solar atmosphere is one of the most fascinating puzzles in plasma-astrophysics. Although magnetic waves might transport enough energy from the photosphere to heat up the local chromosphere and corona, observationally validating their ubiquity has proved challenging. Here, we show observational evidence that ubiquitous Alfvén pulses are excited by prevalent intensity swirls in the solar photosphere. Correlation analysis between swirls detected at different heights in the solar atmosphere, together with realistic numerical simulations, show that these Alfvén pulses propagate upwards and reach chromospheric layers. We found that Alfvén pulses carry sufficient energy flux (1.9 to 7.7 kW m) to balance the local upper chromospheric energy losses (~0.1 kW m) in quiet regions. Whether this wave energy flux is actually dissipated in the chromosphere and can lead to heating that balances the losses is still an open question.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6683129PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11495-0DOI Listing

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