Author name code: antolin ADS astronomy entries on 2022-09-14 author:"Antolin, Patrick" ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Title: What drives decayless kink oscillations in active region coronal loops on the Sun? Authors: Mandal, Sudip; Chitta, Lakshmi P.; Antolin, Patrick; Peter, Hardi; Solanki, Sami K.; Auchère, Frédéric; Berghmans, David; Zhukov, Andrei N.; Teriaca, Luca; Cuadrado, Regina A.; Schühle, Udo; Parenti, Susanna; Buchlin, Éric; Harra, Louise; Verbeeck, Cis; Kraaikamp, Emil; Long, David M.; Rodriguez, Luciano; Pelouze, Gabriel; Schwanitz, Conrad; Barczynski, Krzysztof; Smith, Phil J. Bibcode: 2022arXiv220904251M Altcode: We study here the phenomena of decayless kink oscillations in a system of active region (AR) coronal loops. Using high resolution observations from two different instruments, namely the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) on board Solar Orbiter and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory, we follow these AR loops for an hour each on three consecutive days. Our results show significantly more resolved decayless waves in the higher-resolution EUI data compared with the AIA data. Furthermore, the same system of loops exhibits many of these decayless oscillations on Day-2, while on Day-3, we detect very few oscillations and on Day-1, we find none at all. Analysis of photospheric magnetic field data reveals that at most times, these loops were rooted in sunspots, where supergranular flows are generally absent. This suggests that supergranular flows, which are often invoked as drivers of decayless waves, are not necessarily driving such oscillations in our observations. Similarly, our findings also cast doubt on other possible drivers of these waves, such as a transient driver or mode conversion of longitudinal waves near the loop footpoints. In conclusion, through our analysis we find that none of the commonly suspected sources proposed to drive decayless oscillations in active region loops seems to be operating in this event and hence, the search for that elusive wave driver needs to continue. Title: Observations of Instability-driven Nanojets in Coronal Loops Authors: Sukarmadji, A. Ramada C.; Antolin, Patrick; McLaughlin, James A. Bibcode: 2022ApJ...934..190S Altcode: 2022arXiv220210960S The recent discovery of nanojets by Antolin et al. represents magnetic reconnection in a braided field, thus clearly identifying reconnection-driven nanoflares. Due to their small scale (500 km in width, 1500 km in length) and short timescales (<15 s), it is unclear how pervasive nanojets are in the solar corona. In this paper, we present Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph and Solar Dynamics Observatory observations of nanojets found in multiple coronal structures, namely, in a coronal loop powered by a blowout jet, and in two other coronal loops with coronal rain. In agreement with previous findings, we observe that nanojets are accompanied by small nanoflare-like intensity bursts in the (E)UV, have velocities of 150-250 km s-1 and occur transversely to the field line of origin, which is sometimes observed to split. However, we find a variety of nanojet directions in the plane transverse to the loop axis. These nanojets are found to have kinetic and thermal energies within the nanoflare range, and often occur in clusters. In the blowout jet case study, the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI) is directly identified as the reconnection driver. For the other two loops, we find that both, KHI and Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) are likely to be the drivers. However, we find that KHI and RTI are each more likely in one of the other two cases. These observations of nanojets in a variety of structures and environments support nanojets being a general result of reconnection that are driven here by dynamic instabilities. Title: Coronal oscillations in the self-consistent 3D MHD simulations of the solar atmosphere Authors: Kohutova, Petra; Antolin, Patrick; Carlsson, Mats; Popovas, Andrius Bibcode: 2022cosp...44.2494K Altcode: Solar coronal loops are commonly subject to oscillations. Coronal oscillations are typically studied using highly idealised models of magnetic flux-tubes. In order to improve our understanding of coronal oscillations, it is necessary to consider the effect of realistic magnetic field topology and evolution. To do this, we study excitation, evolution and damping of coronal oscillations in three-dimensional self-consistent simulations of solar atmosphere spanning from convection zone to solar corona using the radiation-MHD code Bifrost. We use forward-modelled EUV emission and three-dimensional tracing of magnetic field to analyse oscillatory behaviour of individual magnetic loops. We show that coronal loop oscillations are abundant in such models and the oscillation modes and characteristics match those detected in solar observations. Finally, we discuss the dynamics and variability of the oscillating loops and the implications for coronal seismology. Title: Automatic detection of small-scale EUV brightenings observed by the Solar Orbiter/EUI Authors: Alipour, N.; Safari, H.; Verbeeck, C.; Berghmans, D.; Auchère, F.; Chitta, L. P.; Antolin, P.; Barczynski, K.; Buchlin, É.; Aznar Cuadrado, R.; Dolla, L.; Georgoulis, M. K.; Gissot, S.; Harra, L.; Katsiyannis, A. C.; Long, D. M.; Mandal, S.; Parenti, S.; Podladchikova, O.; Petrova, E.; Soubrié, É.; Schühle, U.; Schwanitz, C.; Teriaca, L.; West, M. J.; Zhukov, A. N. Bibcode: 2022A&A...663A.128A Altcode: 2022arXiv220404027A Context. Accurate detections of frequent small-scale extreme ultraviolet (EUV) brightenings are essential to the investigation of the physical processes heating the corona.
Aims: We detected small-scale brightenings, termed campfires, using their morphological and intensity structures as observed in coronal EUV imaging observations for statistical analysis.
Methods: We applied a method based on Zernike moments and a support vector machine (SVM) classifier to automatically identify and track campfires observed by Solar Orbiter/Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) and Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)/Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA).
Results: This method detected 8678 campfires (with length scales between 400 km and 4000 km) from a sequence of 50 High Resolution EUV telescope (HRIEUV) 174 Å images. From 21 near co-temporal AIA images covering the same field of view as EUI, we found 1131 campfires, 58% of which were also detected in HRIEUV images. In contrast, about 16% of campfires recognized in HRIEUV were detected by AIA. We obtain a campfire birthrate of 2 × 10−16 m−2 s−1. About 40% of campfires show a duration longer than 5 s, having been observed in at least two HRIEUV images. We find that 27% of campfires were found in coronal bright points and the remaining 73% have occurred out of coronal bright points. We detected 23 EUI campfires with a duration greater than 245 s. We found that about 80% of campfires are formed at supergranular boundaries, and the features with the highest total intensities are generated at network junctions and intense H I Lyman-α emission regions observed by EUI/HRILya. The probability distribution functions for the total intensity, peak intensity, and projected area of campfires follow a power law behavior with absolute indices between 2 and 3. This self-similar behavior is a possible signature of self-organization, or even self-organized criticality, in the campfire formation process.

Supplementary material (S1-S3) is available at https://www.aanda.org Title: Prevalence of Thermal Nonequilibrium over an Active Region Authors: Şahin, Seray; Antolin, Patrick Bibcode: 2022ApJ...931L..27S Altcode: 2022arXiv220510794S Recent observations have shown that besides the characteristic multimillion degree component, the corona also contains a large amount of cool material called coronal rain, whose clumps are 10-100 times cooler and denser than the surroundings and are often organized in larger events, termed showers. Thermal instability (TI) within a coronal loop in a state of thermal nonequilibrium (TNE) is the leading mechanism behind the formation of coronal rain but no investigation on showers exists to date. In this study, we conduct a morphological and thermodynamic multiwavelength study of coronal rain showers observed in an active region (AR) off-limb with IRIS and the Solar Dynamics Observatory, spanning chromospheric to transition region and coronal temperatures. Rain showers were found to be widespread across the AR over the 5.45 hr observing time, with an average length, width, and duration of 27.37 ± 11.95 Mm, 2.14 ± 0.74 Mm, and 35.22 ± 20.35 minutes, respectively. We find a good correspondence between showers and the cooling coronal structures consistent with the TNE-TI scenario, thereby properly identifying coronal loops in the "coronal veil", including the strong expansion at low heights and an almost zero expansion in the corona. This agrees with previous work suggesting that the observed zero expansion in the EUV is due to specific cross-field temperature distribution. We estimate the total number of showers to be 155 ± 40, leading to a TNE volume of 4.56 ± [3.71] × 1028 cm3, i.e., on the same order of the AR volume. This suggests a prevalence of TNE over the AR indicating strongly stratified and high-frequency heating on average. Title: First high resolution interferometric observation of a solar prominence with ALMA Authors: Labrosse, Nicolas; Rodger, Andrew S.; Radziszewski, Krzysztof; Rudawy, Paweł; Antolin, Patrick; Fletcher, Lyndsay; Levens, Peter J.; Peat, Aaron W.; Schmieder, Brigitte; Simões, Paulo J. A. Bibcode: 2022MNRAS.513L..30L Altcode: 2022arXiv220212434L; 2022MNRAS.tmpL..22L We present the first observation of a solar prominence at 84 - 116 GHz using the high resolution interferometric imaging of ALMA. Simultaneous observations in Hα from Białkaw Observatory and with SDO/AIA reveal similar prominence morphology to the ALMA observation. The contribution functions of 3 mm and Hα emission are shown to have significant overlap across a range of gas pressures. We estimate the maximum millimetre-continuum optical thickness to be τ3mm ≍ 2, and the brightness temperature from the observed Hα intensity. The brightness temperature measured by ALMA is ~6000 - 7000 K in the prominence spine, which correlates well with the estimated brightness temperature for a kinetic temperature of 8000 K. Title: Oscilations in the Tails of Comets may Reveal the Rotational Period of the Nucleus Authors: Ferrin; I.; Antolin; L. Bibcode: 2022ATel15357....1F Altcode: We have compiled observations of several comets that exhibit oscillation in their tails, and we have been able to extract the period of oscillation using the Periodogram Tool of the exoplanet archive of NASA. Title: Construction of coronal hole and active region magnetohydrostatic solutions in two dimensions: Force and energy balance Authors: Terradas, J.; Soler, R.; Oliver, R.; Antolin, P.; Arregui, I.; Luna, M.; Piantschitsch, I.; Soubrié, E.; Ballester, J. L. Bibcode: 2022A&A...660A.136T Altcode: 2022arXiv220206800T; 2022arXiv220206800J Coronal holes and active regions are typical magnetic structures found in the solar atmosphere. We propose several magnetohydrostatic equilibrium solutions that are representative of these structures in two dimensions. Our models include the effect of a finite plasma-β and gravity, but the distinctive feature is that we incorporate a thermal structure with properties similar to those reported by observations. We developed a semi-analytical method to compute the equilibrium configuration. Using this method, we obtain cold and under-dense plasma structures in open magnetic fields representing coronal holes, while in closed magnetic configurations, we achieve the characteristic hot and over-dense plasma arrangements of active regions. Although coronal holes and active regions seem to be antagonistic structures, we find that they can be described using a common thermal structure that depends on the flux function. In addition to the force balance, the energy balance is included in the constructed models using an a posteriori approach. From the two-dimensional computation of thermal conduction and radiative losses in our models, we infer the required heating function to achieve energy equilibrium. We find that the temperature dependence on height is an important parameter that may prevent the system from accomplishing thermal balance at certain spatial locations. The implications of these results are discussed in detail. Title: Novel Data Analysis Techniques in Coronal Seismology Authors: Anfinogentov, Sergey A.; Antolin, Patrick; Inglis, Andrew R.; Kolotkov, Dmitrii; Kupriyanova, Elena G.; McLaughlin, James A.; Nisticò, Giuseppe; Pascoe, David J.; Krishna Prasad, S.; Yuan, Ding Bibcode: 2022SSRv..218....9A Altcode: 2021arXiv211213577A We review novel data analysis techniques developed or adapted for the field of coronal seismology. We focus on methods from the last ten years that were developed for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) imaging observations of the solar corona, as well as for light curves from radio and X-ray. The review covers methods for the analysis of transverse and longitudinal waves; spectral analysis of oscillatory signals in time series; automated detection and processing of large data sets; empirical mode decomposition; motion magnification; and reliable detection, including the most common pitfalls causing artefacts and false detections. We also consider techniques for the detailed investigation of MHD waves and seismological inference of physical parameters of the coronal plasma, including restoration of the three-dimensional geometry of oscillating coronal loops, forward modelling and Bayesian parameter inference. Title: Multi-Scale Variability of Coronal Loops Set by Thermal Non-Equilibrium and Instability as a Probe for Coronal Heating Authors: Antolin, Patrick; Froment, Clara Bibcode: 2022FrASS...920116A Altcode: Solar coronal loops are the building blocks of the solar corona. These dynamic structures are shaped by the magnetic field that expands into the solar atmosphere. They can be observed in X-ray and extreme ultraviolet (EUV), revealing the high plasma temperature of the corona. However, the dissipation of magnetic energy to heat the plasma to millions of degrees and, more generally, the mechanisms setting the mass and energy circulation in the solar atmosphere are still a matter of debate. Furthermore, multi-dimensional modelling indicates that the very concept of a coronal loop as an individual entity and its identification in EUV images is ill-defined due to the expected stochasticity of the solar atmosphere with continuous magnetic connectivity changes combined with the optically thin nature of the solar corona. In this context, the recent discovery of ubiquitous long-period EUV pulsations, the observed coronal rain properties and their common link in between represent not only major observational constraints for coronal heating theories but also major theoretical puzzles. The mechanisms of thermal non-equilibrium (TNE) and thermal instability (TI) appear in concert to explain these multi-scale phenomena as evaporation-condensation cycles. Recent numerical efforts clearly illustrate the specific but large parameter space involved in the heating and cooling aspects, and the geometry of the loop affecting the onset and properties of such cycles. In this review we will present and discuss this new approach into inferring coronal heating properties and understanding the mass and energy cycle based on the multi-scale intensity variability and cooling properties set by the TNE-TI scenario. We further discuss the major numerical challenges posed by the existence of TNE cycles and coronal rain, and similar phenomena at much larger scales in the Universe. Title: Probing the Physics of the Solar Atmosphere with the Multi-slit Solar Explorer (MUSE). I. Coronal Heating Authors: De Pontieu, Bart; Testa, Paola; Martínez-Sykora, Juan; Antolin, Patrick; Karampelas, Konstantinos; Hansteen, Viggo; Rempel, Matthias; Cheung, Mark C. M.; Reale, Fabio; Danilovic, Sanja; Pagano, Paolo; Polito, Vanessa; De Moortel, Ineke; Nóbrega-Siverio, Daniel; Van Doorsselaere, Tom; Petralia, Antonino; Asgari-Targhi, Mahboubeh; Boerner, Paul; Carlsson, Mats; Chintzoglou, Georgios; Daw, Adrian; DeLuca, Edward; Golub, Leon; Matsumoto, Takuma; Ugarte-Urra, Ignacio; McIntosh, Scott W.; the MUSE Team Bibcode: 2022ApJ...926...52D Altcode: 2021arXiv210615584D The Multi-slit Solar Explorer (MUSE) is a proposed mission composed of a multislit extreme ultraviolet (EUV) spectrograph (in three spectral bands around 171 Å, 284 Å, and 108 Å) and an EUV context imager (in two passbands around 195 Å and 304 Å). MUSE will provide unprecedented spectral and imaging diagnostics of the solar corona at high spatial (≤0.″5) and temporal resolution (down to ~0.5 s for sit-and-stare observations), thanks to its innovative multislit design. By obtaining spectra in four bright EUV lines (Fe IX 171 Å, Fe XV 284 Å, Fe XIX-Fe XXI 108 Å) covering a wide range of transition regions and coronal temperatures along 37 slits simultaneously, MUSE will, for the first time, "freeze" (at a cadence as short as 10 s) with a spectroscopic raster the evolution of the dynamic coronal plasma over a wide range of scales: from the spatial scales on which energy is released (≤0.″5) to the large-scale (~170″ × 170″) atmospheric response. We use numerical modeling to showcase how MUSE will constrain the properties of the solar atmosphere on spatiotemporal scales (≤0.″5, ≤20 s) and the large field of view on which state-of-the-art models of the physical processes that drive coronal heating, flares, and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) make distinguishing and testable predictions. We describe the synergy between MUSE, the single-slit, high-resolution Solar-C EUVST spectrograph, and ground-based observatories (DKIST and others), and the critical role MUSE plays because of the multiscale nature of the physical processes involved. In this first paper, we focus on coronal heating mechanisms. An accompanying paper focuses on flares and CMEs. Title: Implications of spicule activity on coronal loop heating and catastrophic cooling Authors: Nived, V. N.; Scullion, E.; Doyle, J. G.; Susino, R.; Antolin, P.; Spadaro, D.; Sasso, C.; Sahin, S.; Mathioudakis, M. Bibcode: 2022MNRAS.509.5523N Altcode: 2021arXiv211107967N; 2021MNRAS.tmp.3004N We report on the properties of coronal loop foot-point heating with observations at the highest resolution, from the CRisp Imaging Spectro-Polarimeter located at the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope and co-aligned NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory observations, of Type II spicules in the chromosphere and their signatures in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) corona. Here, we address one important issue, as to why there is not always a one-to-one correspondence, between Type II spicules and hot coronal plasma signatures, i.e. beyond TR temperatures. We do not detect any difference in their spectral properties in a quiet Sun region compared to a region dominated by coronal loops. On the other hand, the number density close to the foot-points in the active region is found to be an order of magnitude higher than in the quiet Sun case. A differential emission measure analysis reveals a peak at ~5 × 105 K of the order of 1022 cm-5 K-1. Using this result as a constraint, we conduct numerical simulations and show that with an energy input of 1.25 × 1024 erg (corresponding to ~10 RBEs contributing to the burst) we manage to reproduce the observation very closely. However, simulation runs with lower thermal energy input do not reproduce the synthetic AIA 171 Å signatures, indicating that there is a critical number of spicules required in order to account for the AIA 171 Å signatures in the simulation. Furthermore, the higher energy (1.25 × 1024 erg) simulations reproduce catastrophic cooling with a cycle duration of ~5 h, matching a periodicity we observe in the EUV observations. Title: Thermal Instability-Induced Fundamental Magnetic Field Strands in the Solar Corona Authors: Antolin, Patrick; Martínez-Sykora, Juan; Şahin, Seray Bibcode: 2022ApJ...926L..29A Altcode: Thermal instability is a fundamental process of astrophysical plasmas. It is expected to occur whenever the cooling is dominated by radiation and cannot be compensated for by heating. In this work, we conduct 2.5D radiation MHD simulations with the Bifrost code of an enhanced activity network in the solar atmosphere. Coronal loops are produced self-consistently, mainly through Joule heating, which is sufficiently stratified and symmetric to produce thermal nonequilibrium. During the cooling and driven by thermal instability, coronal rain is produced along the loops. Due to flux freezing, the catastrophic cooling process leading to a rain clump produces a local enhancement of the magnetic field, thereby generating a distinct magnetic strand within the loop up to a few Gauss stronger than the surrounding coronal field. These strands, which can be considered fundamental, are a few hundred kilometers in width, span most of the loop leg, and emit strongly in the UV and extreme UV (EUV), thereby establishing a link between the commonly seen rain strands in the visible spectrum with the observed EUV coronal strands at high resolution. The compression downstream leads to an increase in temperature that generates a plume-like structure, a strongly emitting spicule-like feature, and short-lived brightening in the UV during the rain impact, providing an explanation for similar phenomena seen with IRIS. Thermal instability and nonequilibrium can therefore be associated with localized and intermittent UV brightening in the transition region and chromosphere, as well as contribute to the characteristic filamentary morphology of the solar corona in the EUV. Title: Probing the Physics of the Solar Atmosphere with the Multi-slit Solar Explorer (MUSE). II. Flares and Eruptions Authors: Cheung, Mark C. M.; Martínez-Sykora, Juan; Testa, Paola; De Pontieu, Bart; Chintzoglou, Georgios; Rempel, Matthias; Polito, Vanessa; Kerr, Graham S.; Reeves, Katharine K.; Fletcher, Lyndsay; Jin, Meng; Nóbrega-Siverio, Daniel; Danilovic, Sanja; Antolin, Patrick; Allred, Joel; Hansteen, Viggo; Ugarte-Urra, Ignacio; DeLuca, Edward; Longcope, Dana; Takasao, Shinsuke; DeRosa, Marc L.; Boerner, Paul; Jaeggli, Sarah; Nitta, Nariaki V.; Daw, Adrian; Carlsson, Mats; Golub, Leon; The Bibcode: 2022ApJ...926...53C Altcode: 2021arXiv210615591C Current state-of-the-art spectrographs cannot resolve the fundamental spatial (subarcseconds) and temporal (less than a few tens of seconds) scales of the coronal dynamics of solar flares and eruptive phenomena. The highest-resolution coronal data to date are based on imaging, which is blind to many of the processes that drive coronal energetics and dynamics. As shown by the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph for the low solar atmosphere, we need high-resolution spectroscopic measurements with simultaneous imaging to understand the dominant processes. In this paper: (1) we introduce the Multi-slit Solar Explorer (MUSE), a spaceborne observatory to fill this observational gap by providing high-cadence (<20 s), subarcsecond-resolution spectroscopic rasters over an active region size of the solar transition region and corona; (2) using advanced numerical models, we demonstrate the unique diagnostic capabilities of MUSE for exploring solar coronal dynamics and for constraining and discriminating models of solar flares and eruptions; (3) we discuss the key contributions MUSE would make in addressing the science objectives of the Next Generation Solar Physics Mission (NGSPM), and how MUSE, the high-throughput Extreme Ultraviolet Solar Telescope, and the Daniel K Inouye Solar Telescope (and other ground-based observatories) can operate as a distributed implementation of the NGSPM. This is a companion paper to De Pontieu et al., which focuses on investigating coronal heating with MUSE. Title: Probing the Physics of the Solar Atmosphere with the Multi-slit Solar Explorer (MUSE): II. Flares and Eruptions Authors: Cheung, Chun Ming Mark; Martinez-Sykora, Juan; Testa, Paola; De Pontieu, Bart; Chintzoglou, Georgios; Rempel, Matthias; Polito, Vanessa; Kerr, Graham; Reeves, Katharine; Fletcher, Lyndsay; Jin, Meng; Nobrega, Daniel; Danilovic, Sanja; Antolin, Patrick; Allred, Joel; Hansteen, Viggo; Ugarte-Urra, Ignacio; DeLuca, Edward; Longcope, Dana; Takasao, Shinsuke; DeRosa, Marc; Boerner, Paul; Jaeggli, Sarah; Nitta, Nariaki; Daw, Adrian; Carlsson, Mats; Golub, Leon Bibcode: 2021AGUFMSH51A..08C Altcode: Current state-of-the-art spectrographs cannot resolve the fundamental spatial (sub-arcseconds) and temporal scales (less than a few tens of seconds) of the coronal dynamics of solar flares and eruptive phenomena. The highest resolution coronal data to date are based on imaging, which is blind to many of the processes that drive coronal energetics and dynamics. As shown by IRIS for the low solar atmosphere, we need high-resolution spectroscopic measurements with simultaneous imaging to understand the dominant processes. In this paper: (1) we introduce the Multi-slit Solar Explorer (MUSE), a spaceborne observatory to fill this observational gap by providing high-cadence (<20 s), sub-arcsecond resolution spectroscopic rasters over an active region size of the solar transition region and corona; (2) using advanced numerical models, we demonstrate the unique diagnostic capabilities of MUSE for exploring solar coronal dynamics, and for constraining and discriminating models of solar flares and eruptions; (3) we discuss the key contributions MUSE would make in addressing the science objectives of the Next Generation Solar Physics Mission (NGSPM), and how MUSE, the high-throughput EUV Solar Telescope (EUVST) and the Daniel K Inouye Solar Telescope (and other ground-based observatories) can operate as a distributed implementation of the NGSPM. This is a companion paper to De Pontieu et al. (2021, also submitted to SH-17), which focuses on investigating coronal heating with MUSE. Title: Stereoscopy of extreme UV quiet Sun brightenings observed by Solar Orbiter/EUI Authors: Zhukov, A. N.; Mierla, M.; Auchère, F.; Gissot, S.; Rodriguez, L.; Soubrié, E.; Thompson, W. T.; Inhester, B.; Nicula, B.; Antolin, P.; Parenti, S.; Buchlin, É.; Barczynski, K.; Verbeeck, C.; Kraaikamp, E.; Smith, P. J.; Stegen, K.; Dolla, L.; Harra, L.; Long, D. M.; Schühle, U.; Podladchikova, O.; Aznar Cuadrado, R.; Teriaca, L.; Haberreiter, M.; Katsiyannis, A. C.; Rochus, P.; Halain, J. -P.; Jacques, L.; Berghmans, D. Bibcode: 2021A&A...656A..35Z Altcode: 2021arXiv210902169Z Context. The three-dimensional fine structure of the solar atmosphere is still not fully understood as most of the available observations are taken from a single vantage point.
Aims: The goal of the paper is to study the three-dimensional distribution of the small-scale brightening events ("campfires") discovered in the extreme-UV quiet Sun by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) aboard Solar Orbiter.
Methods: We used a first commissioning data set acquired by the EUI's High Resolution EUV telescope on 30 May 2020 in the 174 Å passband and we combined it with simultaneous data taken by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) aboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory in a similar 171 Å passband. The two-pixel spatial resolution of the two telescopes is 400 km and 880 km, respectively, which is sufficient to identify the campfires in both data sets. The two spacecraft had an angular separation of around 31.5° (essentially in heliographic longitude), which allowed for the three-dimensional reconstruction of the campfire position. These observations represent the first time that stereoscopy was achieved for brightenings at such a small scale. Manual and automatic triangulation methods were used to characterize the campfire data.
Results: The height of the campfires is located between 1000 km and 5000 km above the photosphere and we find a good agreement between the manual and automatic methods. The internal structure of campfires is mostly unresolved by AIA; however, for a particularly large campfire, we were able to triangulate a few pixels, which are all in a narrow range between 2500 and 4500 km.
Conclusions: We conclude that the low height of EUI campfires suggests that they belong to the previously unresolved fine structure of the transition region and low corona of the quiet Sun. They are probably apexes of small-scale dynamic loops heated internally to coronal temperatures. This work demonstrates that high-resolution stereoscopy of structures in the solar atmosphere has become feasible. Title: Campfires observed by EUI: What have we learned so far? Authors: Berghmans, David; Auchere, F.; Zhukov, Andrei; Mierla, Marilena; Chen, Yajie; Peter, Hardi; Panesar, Navdeep; Chitta, Lakshmi Pradeep; Antolin, Patrick; Aznar Cuadrado, Regina; Tian, Hui; Hou, Zhenyong; Podladchikova, Olena Bibcode: 2021AGUFMSH21A..02B Altcode: Since its very first light images of the corona, the EUI/HRIEUV telescope onboard Solar Orbiter has observed small localised brightenings in the Quiet Sun. These small localised brightenings, have become known as campfires, and are observed with length scales between 400 km and 4000 km and durations between 10 sec and 200 sec. The smallest and weakest of these HRIEUV brightenings have not been previously observed. Simultaneous observations from the EUI High-resolution Lyman- telescope (HRILYA) do not show localised brightening events, but the locations of the HRIEUV events clearly correspond to the chromospheric network. Comparisons with simultaneous AIA images shows that most events can also be identified in the 17.1 nm, 19.3 nm, 21.1 nm, and 30.4 nm pass-bands of AIA, although they appear weaker and blurred. Some of the larger campfires have the appearance of small interacting loops with the brightening expanding from the contact point of the loops. Our differential emission measure (DEM) analysis indicated coronal temperatures. We determined the height for a few of these campfires to be between 1 and 5 Mm above the photosphere. We interpret these events as a new extension to the flare-microflare-nanoflare family. Given their low height, the EUI campfires could stand as a new element of the fine structure of the transition region-low corona, that is, as apexes of small-scale loops that undergo internal heating all the way up to coronal temperatures. 3D MHD simulations with the MURaM code revealed brightenings that are in many ways similar to the campfires by EUI. The brightenings in the simulations suggest that campfires are triggered by component reconnection inside flux bundles rather than flux emergence or cancellation. Nevertheless, some of the observed campfires can be clearly linked to flux cancellation events and, intriguingly, are preceded by an erupting cool plasma structure. Analysis of the dynamics of campfires revealed that some have the appearance of coronal microjets, the smallest coronal jets observed in the quiet Sun. The HRIEUV images also reveal transient jets on a somewhat bigger scale with repeated outflows on the order of 100 km s1. In this paper we will provide an overview of the campfire related phenomena that EUI has observed and discuss the possible relevance for coronal heating. Title: Stereoscopy of extreme UV quiet Sun brightenings observed by Solar Orbiter/EUI Authors: Zhukov, Andrei; Mierla, Marilena; Auchere, F.; Gissot, Samuel; Rodriguez, Luciano; Soubrie, Elie; Thompson, William; Inhester, Bernd; Nicula, Bogdan; Antolin, Patrick; Parenti, Susanna; Buchlin, Eric; Barczynski, Krzysztof; Verbeeck, Cis; Kraaikamp, Emil; Smith, Philip; Stegen, Koen; Dolla, Laurent; Harra, Louise; Long, David; Schuhle, Udo; Podladchikova, Olena; Aznar Cuadrado, Regina; Teriaca, Luca; Haberreiter, Margit; Katsiyannis, Athanassios; Rochus, Pierre; Halain, Jean-Philippe; Jacques, Lionel; Berghmans, David Bibcode: 2021AGUFMSH21A..03Z Altcode: We study the three-dimensional distribution of small-scale brightening events (campfires) discovered in the extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) quiet Sun by the EUI telescope onboard the Solar Orbiter mission. We use one of the first commissioning data sets acquired by the HRI_EUV telescope of EUI on 2020 May 30 in the 174 A passband, combined with the simultaneous SDO/AIA dataset taken in the very similar 171 A passband. The spatial resolution of the two telescopes is sufficient to identify the campfires in both datasets. The angular separation between the two spacecraft of around 31.5 degrees allowed for the three-dimensional reconstruction of the position of campfires. This is the first time that stereoscopy was achieved for structures at such a small scale. Manual and automatic triangulation methods were used. The height of campfires is between 1000 km and 5000 km above the photosphere, and there is a good agreement between the results of manual and automatic methods. The internal structure of campfires is mostly not resolved by AIA, but for a large campfire we could triangulate a few pixels, which are all in a narrow height range between 2500 and 4500 km. The low height of campfires suggests that they belong to the previously unresolved fine structure of the transition region and low corona of the quiet Sun. They are probably apexes of small-scale dynamic loops internally heated to coronal temperatures. This work demonstrates that high-resolution stereoscopy of structures in the solar atmosphere has become possible. Title: Extreme-UV quiet Sun brightenings observed by the Solar Orbiter/EUI Authors: Berghmans, D.; Auchère, F.; Long, D. M.; Soubrié, E.; Mierla, M.; Zhukov, A. N.; Schühle, U.; Antolin, P.; Harra, L.; Parenti, S.; Podladchikova, O.; Aznar Cuadrado, R.; Buchlin, É.; Dolla, L.; Verbeeck, C.; Gissot, S.; Teriaca, L.; Haberreiter, M.; Katsiyannis, A. C.; Rodriguez, L.; Kraaikamp, E.; Smith, P. J.; Stegen, K.; Rochus, P.; Halain, J. P.; Jacques, L.; Thompson, W. T.; Inhester, B. Bibcode: 2021A&A...656L...4B Altcode: 2021arXiv210403382B Context. The heating of the solar corona by small heating events requires an increasing number of such events at progressively smaller scales, with the bulk of the heating occurring at scales that are currently unresolved.
Aims: The goal of this work is to study the smallest brightening events observed in the extreme-UV quiet Sun.
Methods: We used commissioning data taken by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) on board the recently launched Solar Orbiter mission. On 30 May 2020, the EUI was situated at 0.556 AU from the Sun. Its High Resolution EUV telescope (HRIEUV, 17.4 nm passband) reached an exceptionally high two-pixel spatial resolution of 400 km. The size and duration of small-scale structures was determined by the HRIEUV data, while their height was estimated from triangulation with simultaneous images from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory mission. This is the first stereoscopy of small-scale brightenings at high resolution.
Results: We observed small localised brightenings, also known as `campfires', in a quiet Sun region with length scales between 400 km and 4000 km and durations between 10 s and 200 s. The smallest and weakest of these HRIEUV brightenings have not been previously observed. Simultaneous observations from the EUI High-resolution Lyman-α telescope (HRILya) do not show localised brightening events, but the locations of the HRIEUV events clearly correspond to the chromospheric network. Comparisons with simultaneous AIA images shows that most events can also be identified in the 17.1 nm, 19.3 nm, 21.1 nm, and 30.4 nm pass-bands of AIA, although they appear weaker and blurred. Our differential emission measure analysis indicated coronal temperatures peaking at log T ≈ 6.1 − 6.15. We determined the height for a few of these campfires to be between 1000 and 5000 km above the photosphere.
Conclusions: We find that `campfires' are mostly coronal in nature and rooted in the magnetic flux concentrations of the chromospheric network. We interpret these events as a new extension to the flare-microflare-nanoflare family. Given their low height, the EUI `campfires' could stand as a new element of the fine structure of the transition region-low corona, that is, as apexes of small-scale loops that undergo internal heating all the way up to coronal temperatures. Title: Modelling of asymmetric nanojets in coronal loops Authors: Pagano, P.; Antolin, P.; Petralia, A. Bibcode: 2021A&A...656A.141P Altcode: 2021arXiv210904854P Context. Observations of reconnection jets in the solar corona are emerging as a possible diagnostic for studying highly elusive coronal heating. Such jets, and in particular those termed nanojets, can be observed in coronal loops and have been linked to nanoflares. However, while models successfully describe the bilateral post-reconnection magnetic slingshot effect that leads to the jets, observations reveal that nanojets are unidirectional or highly asymmetric, with only the jet travelling inward with respect to the coronal loop's curvature being clearly observed.
Aims: The aim of this work is to address the role of the curvature of the coronal loop in the generation and evolution of asymmetric reconnection jets.
Methods: We first use a simplified analytical model in which we estimate the post-reconnection tension forces based on the local intersection angle between the pre-reconnection magnetic field lines and their post-reconnection retracting length towards new equilibria. Second, we use a simplified numerical magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model to study how two opposite propagating jets evolve in curved magnetic field lines.
Results: Through our analytical model, we demonstrate that in the post-reconnection reorganised magnetic field, the inward directed magnetic tension is inherently stronger (by up to three orders of magnitude) than the outward directed one and that, with a large enough retracting length, a regime exists where the outward directed tension disappears, leading to no outward jet at large, observable scales. Our MHD numerical model provides support for these results, proving also that in the subsequent time evolution the inward jets are consistently more energetic. The degree of asymmetry is also found to increase for small-angle reconnection and for more localised reconnection regions.
Conclusions: This work shows that the curvature of the coronal loops can play a major role in the asymmetry of the reconnection jets and that inward directed jets are more likely to occur and are more energetic than the corresponding outward directed ones. Title: Forward Modeling of Simulated Transverse Oscillations in Coronal Loops and the Influence of Background Emission Authors: Shi, Mijie; Van Doorsselaere, Tom; Antolin, Patrick; Li, Bo Bibcode: 2021ApJ...922...60S Altcode: 2021arXiv210902338S We simulate transverse oscillations in radiatively cooling coronal loops and forward-model their spectroscopic and imaging signatures, paying attention to the influence of background emission. The transverse oscillations are driven at one footpoint by a periodic velocity driver. A standing kink wave is subsequently formed and the loop cross section is deformed due to the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, resulting in energy dissipation and heating at small scales. Besides the transverse motions, a long-period longitudinal flow is also generated due to the ponderomotive force induced slow wave. We then transform the simulated straight loop to a semi-torus loop and forward-model their spectrometer and imaging emissions, mimicking observations of Hinode/EIS and SDO/AIA. We find that the oscillation amplitudes of the intensity are different at different slit positions, but are roughly the same in different spectral lines or channels. X-t diagrams of both the Doppler velocity and the Doppler width show periodic signals. We also find that the background emission dramatically decreases the Doppler velocity, making the estimated kinetic energy two orders of magnitude smaller than the real value. Our results show that background subtraction can help recover the real oscillation velocity. These results are helpful for further understanding transverse oscillations in coronal loops and their observational signatures. However, they cast doubt on the spectroscopically estimated energy content of transverse waves using the Doppler velocity. Title: Magnetohydrodynamic Waves in Open Coronal Structures Authors: Banerjee, D.; Krishna Prasad, S.; Pant, V.; McLaughlin, J. A.; Antolin, P.; Magyar, N.; Ofman, L.; Tian, H.; Van Doorsselaere, T.; De Moortel, I.; Wang, T. J. Bibcode: 2021SSRv..217...76B Altcode: 2020arXiv201208802B Modern observatories have revealed the ubiquitous presence of magnetohydrodynamic waves in the solar corona. The propagating waves (in contrast to the standing waves) are usually originated in the lower solar atmosphere which makes them particularly relevant to coronal heating. Furthermore, open coronal structures are believed to be the source regions of solar wind, therefore, the detection of MHD waves in these structures is also pertinent to the acceleration of solar wind. Besides, the advanced capabilities of the current generation telescopes have allowed us to extract important coronal properties through MHD seismology. The recent progress made in the detection, origin, and damping of both propagating slow magnetoacoustic waves and kink (Alfvénic) waves is presented in this review article especially in the context of open coronal structures. Where appropriate, we give an overview on associated theoretical modelling studies. A few of the important seismological applications of these waves are discussed. The possible role of Alfvénic waves in the acceleration of solar wind is also touched upon. Title: Kink Oscillations of Coronal Loops Authors: Nakariakov, V. M.; Anfinogentov, S. A.; Antolin, P.; Jain, R.; Kolotkov, D. Y.; Kupriyanova, E. G.; Li, D.; Magyar, N.; Nisticò, G.; Pascoe, D. J.; Srivastava, A. K.; Terradas, J.; Vasheghani Farahani, S.; Verth, G.; Yuan, D.; Zimovets, I. V. Bibcode: 2021SSRv..217...73N Altcode: 2021arXiv210911220N Kink oscillations of coronal loops, i.e., standing kink waves, is one of the most studied dynamic phenomena in the solar corona. The oscillations are excited by impulsive energy releases, such as low coronal eruptions. Typical periods of the oscillations are from a few to several minutes, and are found to increase linearly with the increase in the major radius of the oscillating loops. It clearly demonstrates that kink oscillations are natural modes of the loops, and can be described as standing fast magnetoacoustic waves with the wavelength determined by the length of the loop. Kink oscillations are observed in two different regimes. In the rapidly decaying regime, the apparent displacement amplitude reaches several minor radii of the loop. The damping time which is about several oscillation periods decreases with the increase in the oscillation amplitude, suggesting a nonlinear nature of the damping. In the decayless regime, the amplitudes are smaller than a minor radius, and the driver is still debated. The review summarises major findings obtained during the last decade, and covers both observational and theoretical results. Observational results include creation and analysis of comprehensive catalogues of the oscillation events, and detection of kink oscillations with imaging and spectral instruments in the EUV and microwave bands. Theoretical results include various approaches to modelling in terms of the magnetohydrodynamic wave theory. Properties of kink oscillations are found to depend on parameters of the oscillating loop, such as the magnetic twist, stratification, steady flows, temperature variations and so on, which make kink oscillations a natural probe of these parameters by the method of magnetohydrodynamic seismology. Title: Magnetic field inference in active region coronal loops using coronal rain clumps Authors: Kriginsky, M.; Oliver, R.; Antolin, P.; Kuridze, D.; Freij, N. Bibcode: 2021A&A...650A..71K Altcode: 2021arXiv210403089K
Aims: We aim to infer information about the magnetic field in the low solar corona from coronal rain clumps using high-resolution spectropolarimetric observations in the Ca II 8542 Å line obtained with the Swedish 1 m Solar Telescope.
Methods: The weak-field approximation (WFA) provides a simple tool to obtain the line-of-sight component of the magnetic field from spectropolarimetric observations. We adapted a method developed in a previous paper in order to assess the different conditions that must be satisfied in order to properly use the WFA for the data at hand. We also made use of velocity measurements in order to estimate the plane-of-the-sky magnetic field component, so that the magnetic field vector could be inferred.
Results: We have inferred the magnetic field vector from a data set totalling 100 spectral scans in the Ca II 8542 Å line, containing an off-limb view of the lower portion of catastrophically cooled coronal loops in an active region. Our results, albeit limited by the cadence and signal-to-noise ratio of the data, suggest that magnetic field strengths of hundreds of Gauss, even reaching up to 1000 G, are omnipresent at coronal heights below 9 Mm from the visible limb. Our results are also compatible with the presence of larger magnetic field values such as those reported by previous works. However, for large magnetic fields, the Doppler width from coronal rain is not that much larger than the Zeeman width, thwarting the application of the WFA. Furthermore, we have determined the temperature, T, and microturbulent velocity, ξ, of coronal rain clumps and off-limb spicules present in the same data set, and we have found that the former ones have narrower T and ξ distributions, their average temperature is similar, and coronal rain has microturbulent velocities smaller than those of spicules.

Movie associated to Fig. 1 is available at https://www.aanda.org Title: A New View of the Solar Interface Region from the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) Authors: De Pontieu, Bart; Polito, Vanessa; Hansteen, Viggo; Testa, Paola; Reeves, Katharine K.; Antolin, Patrick; Nóbrega-Siverio, Daniel Elias; Kowalski, Adam F.; Martinez-Sykora, Juan; Carlsson, Mats; McIntosh, Scott W.; Liu, Wei; Daw, Adrian; Kankelborg, Charles C. Bibcode: 2021SoPh..296...84D Altcode: 2021arXiv210316109D The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) has been obtaining near- and far-ultraviolet images and spectra of the solar atmosphere since July 2013. IRIS is the highest resolution observatory to provide seamless coverage of spectra and images from the photosphere into the low corona. The unique combination of near- and far-ultraviolet spectra and images at sub-arcsecond resolution and high cadence allows the tracing of mass and energy through the critical interface between the surface and the corona or solar wind. IRIS has enabled research into the fundamental physical processes thought to play a role in the low solar atmosphere such as ion-neutral interactions, magnetic reconnection, the generation, propagation, and dissipation of waves, the acceleration of non-thermal particles, and various small-scale instabilities. IRIS has provided insights into a wide range of phenomena including the discovery of non-thermal particles in coronal nano-flares, the formation and impact of spicules and other jets, resonant absorption and dissipation of Alfvénic waves, energy release and jet-like dynamics associated with braiding of magnetic-field lines, the role of turbulence and the tearing-mode instability in reconnection, the contribution of waves, turbulence, and non-thermal particles in the energy deposition during flares and smaller-scale events such as UV bursts, and the role of flux ropes and various other mechanisms in triggering and driving CMEs. IRIS observations have also been used to elucidate the physical mechanisms driving the solar irradiance that impacts Earth's upper atmosphere, and the connections between solar and stellar physics. Advances in numerical modeling, inversion codes, and machine-learning techniques have played a key role. With the advent of exciting new instrumentation both on the ground, e.g. the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), and space-based, e.g. the Parker Solar Probe and the Solar Orbiter, we aim to review new insights based on IRIS observations or related modeling, and highlight some of the outstanding challenges. Title: Critical Science Plan for the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) Authors: Rast, Mark P.; Bello González, Nazaret; Bellot Rubio, Luis; Cao, Wenda; Cauzzi, Gianna; Deluca, Edward; de Pontieu, Bart; Fletcher, Lyndsay; Gibson, Sarah E.; Judge, Philip G.; Katsukawa, Yukio; Kazachenko, Maria D.; Khomenko, Elena; Landi, Enrico; Martínez Pillet, Valentín; Petrie, Gordon J. D.; Qiu, Jiong; Rachmeler, Laurel A.; Rempel, Matthias; Schmidt, Wolfgang; Scullion, Eamon; Sun, Xudong; Welsch, Brian T.; Andretta, Vincenzo; Antolin, Patrick; Ayres, Thomas R.; Balasubramaniam, K. S.; Ballai, Istvan; Berger, Thomas E.; Bradshaw, Stephen J.; Campbell, Ryan J.; Carlsson, Mats; Casini, Roberto; Centeno, Rebecca; Cranmer, Steven R.; Criscuoli, Serena; Deforest, Craig; Deng, Yuanyong; Erdélyi, Robertus; Fedun, Viktor; Fischer, Catherine E.; González Manrique, Sergio J.; Hahn, Michael; Harra, Louise; Henriques, Vasco M. J.; Hurlburt, Neal E.; Jaeggli, Sarah; Jafarzadeh, Shahin; Jain, Rekha; Jefferies, Stuart M.; Keys, Peter H.; Kowalski, Adam F.; Kuckein, Christoph; Kuhn, Jeffrey R.; Kuridze, David; Liu, Jiajia; Liu, Wei; Longcope, Dana; Mathioudakis, Mihalis; McAteer, R. T. James; McIntosh, Scott W.; McKenzie, David E.; Miralles, Mari Paz; Morton, Richard J.; Muglach, Karin; Nelson, Chris J.; Panesar, Navdeep K.; Parenti, Susanna; Parnell, Clare E.; Poduval, Bala; Reardon, Kevin P.; Reep, Jeffrey W.; Schad, Thomas A.; Schmit, Donald; Sharma, Rahul; Socas-Navarro, Hector; Srivastava, Abhishek K.; Sterling, Alphonse C.; Suematsu, Yoshinori; Tarr, Lucas A.; Tiwari, Sanjiv; Tritschler, Alexandra; Verth, Gary; Vourlidas, Angelos; Wang, Haimin; Wang, Yi-Ming; NSO and DKIST Project; DKIST Instrument Scientists; DKIST Science Working Group; DKIST Critical Science Plan Community Bibcode: 2021SoPh..296...70R Altcode: 2020arXiv200808203R The National Science Foundation's Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) will revolutionize our ability to measure, understand, and model the basic physical processes that control the structure and dynamics of the Sun and its atmosphere. The first-light DKIST images, released publicly on 29 January 2020, only hint at the extraordinary capabilities that will accompany full commissioning of the five facility instruments. With this Critical Science Plan (CSP) we attempt to anticipate some of what those capabilities will enable, providing a snapshot of some of the scientific pursuits that the DKIST hopes to engage as start-of-operations nears. The work builds on the combined contributions of the DKIST Science Working Group (SWG) and CSP Community members, who generously shared their experiences, plans, knowledge, and dreams. Discussion is primarily focused on those issues to which DKIST will uniquely contribute. Title: The First 3D Coronal Loop Model Heated by MHD Waves against Radiative Losses Authors: Shi, Mijie; Van Doorsselaere, Tom; Guo, Mingzhe; Karampelas, Konstantinos; Li, Bo; Antolin, Patrick Bibcode: 2021ApJ...908..233S Altcode: 2021arXiv210101019S In the quest to solve the long-standing coronal heating problem, it was suggested half a century ago that coronal loops could be heated by waves. Despite the accumulating observational evidence of the possible importance of coronal waves, still no 3D MHD simulations exist that show significant heating by MHD waves. Here we report on the first 3D coronal loop model that heats the plasma against radiative cooling. The coronal loop is driven at the footpoint by transverse oscillations, and subsequently the induced Kelvin-Helmholtz instability deforms the loop cross section and generates small-scale structures. Wave energy is transferred to smaller scales where it is dissipated, overcoming the internal energy losses by radiation. These results open up a new avenue to address the coronal heating problem. Title: On Cooling Condensation Near Magnetic Null Points and the Formation of Solar Coronal Rain and Prominences Authors: Liu, Wei; Titov, Viacheslav; Downs, Cooper; Antolin, Patrick; Luna, Manuel; Sun, Xudong; Berger, Thomas; Yu, Sijie; Yoffe, Luke Bibcode: 2021cosp...43E.975L Altcode: The Sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, is million-degrees hot and tenuous. Such hot plasma, under certain conditions, can enigmatically undergo a radiative cooling instability and condense into material of 100 times cooler in the form of coronal rain or prominences. Where, when, and how such cooling condensation takes place remain poorly understood. Answers to these questions are not only important in their own right, but also bear implications for the fundamental question of coronal heating and the chromosphere-corona mass cycle. Magnetic fields in the magnetized corona undoubtedly play a crucial role (e.g., by trapping the plasma), but where and how? We report recent imaging and spectroscopic observations from SDO/AIA/HMI and IRIS that can shed light on this puzzle. Through a systematic survey, we found that a large fraction of quiet-Sun condensations preferentially occur at the dips of coronal loops or funnels. Such dips are located at/near magnetic topological features, such as null points and quasi-separatrix layers (QSLs), which are regions characterized by high values of the squashing factor. We also identified evidence of magnetic reconnection at such locations, which can produce favorable conditions, e.g., density enhancement by compression and/or mass trapping in plasmoids, that can trigger run-away radiative cooling. We present proof-of-concept MHD simulations that demonstrate the role of reconnection in transporting cooled mass from overlying, long loops to underlying, short loops where it slides down as coronal rain. We will discuss the significance and broader implications of these results beyond the Sun. Title: Reconnection nanojets in the solar corona Authors: Antolin, Patrick; Pagano, Paolo; Testa, Paola; Petralia, Antonino; Reale, Fabio Bibcode: 2021NatAs...5...54A Altcode: 2020NatAs.tmp..201A; 2020NatAs.tmp..186A The solar corona is shaped and mysteriously heated to millions of degrees by the Sun's magnetic field. It has long been hypothesized that the heating results from a myriad of tiny magnetic energy outbursts called nanoflares, driven by the fundamental process of magnetic reconnection. Misaligned magnetic field lines can break and reconnect, producing nanoflares in avalanche-like processes. However, no direct and unique observations of such nanoflares exist to date, and the lack of a smoking gun has cast doubt on the possibility of solving the coronal heating problem. From coordinated multi-band high-resolution observations, we report on the discovery of very fast and bursty nanojets, the telltale signature of reconnection-based nanoflares resulting in coronal heating. Using state-of-the-art numerical simulations, we demonstrate that the nanojet is a consequence of the slingshot effect from the magnetically tensed, curved magnetic field lines reconnecting at small angles. Nanojets are therefore the key signature of reconnection-based coronal heating in action. Title: Reconnection Nanojets in the Solar Corona Authors: Antolin, Patrick; Reale, Fabio; Testa, Paola; Pagano, Paolo; Petralia, Antonino Bibcode: 2021cosp...43E1798A Altcode: The solar corona is shaped and mysteriously heated to millions of degrees by the Sun's magnetic field. It has long been hypothesised that the heating results from a myriad of tiny magnetic energy outbursts called nanoflares driven by the fundamental process of magnetic reconnection. Misaligned magnetic field lines can break and reconnect, producing nanoflares in avalanche-like processes. However, no direct and unique observations of such nanoflares exist to date, and the lack of a smoking gun has cast doubt on the possibility of solving the coronal heating problem. From coordinated multi-band high-resolution observations here we report on the discovery of very fast and bursty nanojets, the telltale signature of reconnection-based nanoflares resulting in coronal heating. Isolated and clustered nanojets are detected, and a myriad are observed in an avalanche-like progression, leading to the formation of a coronal loop. Using state-of-the-art numerical simulations we demonstrate that the nanojet is a consequence of the slingshot effect from the magnetically tensed, curved magnetic field lines reconnecting at small angles. Nanojets are therefore the key signature to look for reconnection-based coronal heating in action. Title: Thermal instability-induced fundamental magnetic strands in coronal loops Authors: Antolin, Patrick; Martinez-Sykora, Juan Bibcode: 2021cosp...43E.968A Altcode: Thermal instability is a fundamental process of astrophysical plasmas. It is expected to occur whenever the cooling is dominated by radiation and cannot be compensated by heating. This mechanism has been invoked to explain structures at multiple scales in the Universe, from the filamentary structure of the ISM to the phenomenon of coronal rain in the solar corona. In this work we conduct 2.5-D Radiation MHD simulations with the Bifrost code of an enhanced activity network in the solar atmosphere. Coronal loops are produced self-consistently, mainly through Ohmic heating, which is stratified and of a high enough frequency as to produce thermal non-equilibrium. During the cooling and driven by thermal instability, coronal rain is produced along the loops. Due to flux freezing, the catastrophic cooling process leading to a rain clump produces a local enhancement of the magnetic field, thereby generating a distinct magnetic strand within the loop up to a few Gauss stronger than the ambient corona. The compression downstream leads to an increase in temperature that generates a strongly emitting spicule-like feature in the UV during the rain impact. The stronger magnetic field strength in the rarefied upstream region has a stronger Ohmic heating, leading to a filamentary coronal strand with enhanced EUV emission. Thermal instability and _x0005_non-equilibrium can therefore be associated with localised and intermittent UV brightening in the transition region and chromosphere, as well as contribute to the characteristic filamentary morphology of the solar corona in the EUV. An additional effect of a strand with enhanced magnetic field is to serve as a waveguide, which combined with the Ohmic heating can act as a seed to sustain the coronal loop and the thermal non-equilibrium cycle. Title: Publisher Correction: Reconnection nanojets in the solar corona Authors: Antolin, Patrick; Pagano, Paolo; Testa, Paola; Petralia, Antonino; Reale, Fabio Bibcode: 2021NatAs...5..103A Altcode: 2020NatAs.tmp..204A An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper. Title: Magnetohydrodynamic Fast Sausage Waves in the Solar Corona Authors: Li, B.; Antolin, P.; Guo, M. -Z.; Kuznetsov, A. A.; Pascoe, D. J.; Van Doorsselaere, T.; Vasheghani Farahani, S. Bibcode: 2020SSRv..216..136L Altcode: 2020arXiv201016023L Characterized by cyclic axisymmetric perturbations to both the magnetic and fluid parameters, magnetohydrodynamic fast sausage modes (FSMs) have proven useful for solar coronal seismology given their strong dispersion. This review starts by summarizing the dispersive properties of the FSMs in the canonical configuration where the equilibrium quantities are transversely structured in a step fashion. With this preparation we then review the recent theoretical studies on coronal FSMs, showing that the canonical dispersion features have been better understood physically, and further exploited seismologically. In addition, we show that departures from the canonical equilibrium configuration have led to qualitatively different dispersion features, thereby substantially broadening the range of observations that FSMs can be invoked to account for. We also summarize the advances in forward modeling studies, emphasizing the intricacies in interpreting observed oscillatory signals in terms of FSMs. All these advances notwithstanding, we offer a list of aspects that remain to be better addressed, with the physical connection of coronal FSMs to the quasi-periodic pulsations in solar flares particularly noteworthy. Title: Coronal Heating by MHD Waves Authors: Van Doorsselaere, Tom; Srivastava, Abhishek K.; Antolin, Patrick; Magyar, Norbert; Vasheghani Farahani, Soheil; Tian, Hui; Kolotkov, Dmitrii; Ofman, Leon; Guo, Mingzhe; Arregui, Iñigo; De Moortel, Ineke; Pascoe, David Bibcode: 2020SSRv..216..140V Altcode: 2020arXiv201201371V The heating of the solar chromosphere and corona to the observed high temperatures, imply the presence of ongoing heating that balances the strong radiative and thermal conduction losses expected in the solar atmosphere. It has been theorized for decades that the required heating mechanisms of the chromospheric and coronal parts of the active regions, quiet-Sun, and coronal holes are associated with the solar magnetic fields. However, the exact physical process that transport and dissipate the magnetic energy which ultimately leads to the solar plasma heating are not yet fully understood. The current understanding of coronal heating relies on two main mechanism: reconnection and MHD waves that may have various degrees of importance in different coronal regions. In this review we focus on recent advances in our understanding of MHD wave heating mechanisms. First, we focus on giving an overview of observational results, where we show that different wave modes have been discovered in the corona in the last decade, many of which are associated with a significant energy flux, either generated in situ or pumped from the lower solar atmosphere. Afterwards, we summarise the recent findings of numerical modelling of waves, motivated by the observational results. Despite the advances, only 3D MHD models with Alfvén wave heating in an unstructured corona can explain the observed coronal temperatures compatible with the quiet Sun, while 3D MHD wave heating models including cross-field density structuring are not yet able to account for the heating of coronal loops in active regions to their observed temperature. Title: Ubiquitous hundred-Gauss magnetic fields in solar spicules Authors: Kriginsky, M.; Oliver, R.; Freij, N.; Kuridze, D.; Asensio Ramos, A.; Antolin, P. Bibcode: 2020A&A...642A..61K Altcode: 2020arXiv200601809K
Aims: We aim to study the magnetic field in solar spicules using high-resolution spectropolarimetric observations in the Ca II 8542 Å line obtained with the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope.
Methods: The equations that result from the application of the weak field approximation (WFA) to the radiative transfer equations were used to infer the line-of-sight (LOS) component of the magnetic field (BLOS). Two restrictive conditions were imposed on the Stokes I and V profiles at each pixel before they could be used in a Bayesian inversion to compute its BLOS.
Results: The LOS magnetic field component was inferred in six data sets totalling 448 spectral scans in the Ca II 8542 Å line and containing both active region and quiet Sun areas, with values of hundreds of Gauss being abundantly inferred. There seems to be no difference, from a statistical point of view, between the magnetic field strength of spicules in the quiet Sun or near an active region. On the other hand, the BLOS distributions present smaller values on the disc than off-limb, a fact that can be explained by the effect of superposition on the chromosphere of on-disc structures. We show that on-disc pixels in which the BLOS is determined are possibly associated with spicular structures because these pixels are co-spatial with the magnetic field concentrations at the network boundaries and the sign of their BLOS agrees with that of the underlying photosphere. We find that spicules in the vicinity of a sunspot have a magnetic field polarity (i.e. north or south) equal to that of the sunspot. This paper also contains an analysis of the effect of off-limb overlapping structures on the observed Stokes I and V parameters and the BLOS obtained from the WFA. It is found that this value is equal to or smaller than the largest LOS magnetic field components of the two structures. In addition, using random BLOS, Doppler velocities, and line intensities of these two structures leads in ≃50% of the cases to Stokes I and V parameters that are unsuitable to be used with the WFA.
Conclusions: Our results present a scarcity of LOS magnetic field components smaller than some 50 G, which must not be taken as evidence against the existence of these magnetic field strengths in spicules. This fact possibly arises as the consequence of signal superposition and noise in the data. We also suggest that the failure of previous works to infer the strong magnetic fields in spicules detected here is their coarser spatial and/or temporal resolution. Title: Magnetic field inference in the chromosphere and lower corona Authors: Kriginsky, M.; Oliver, R.; Freij, N.; Kuridze, D.; Asensio Ramos, A.; Antolin, P. Bibcode: 2020sea..confE.201K Altcode: The Weak Field Approximation (WFA) is used to infer the line-of-sight magnetic field of the solar chromosphere and lower corona. Using near limb spectropolarimetric observations in the Ca II 8542 Å line taken with the CRISP instrument at the Swedish 1-metre telescope in La Palma, the presence of an active region near/in the field of view allows for the presence of chromospheric spicules and coronal rain blobs to be detected. This work focuses mostly in the inference of magnetic fields of off-limb spicules, but a successful attempt to obtain Stokes V signal from the coronal rain blobs allowed for the inference of coronal magnetic fields. A careful treatment of the data pixels is undertaken in order to guarantee the correct application of the WFA, and the results show the presence of ubiquitous hundred-Gauss magnetic fields in the spicular material and in the coronal rain blobs. A Bayesian approach is used to infer the results. Title: Self-consistent 3D radiative magnetohydrodynamic simulations of coronal rain formation and evolution Authors: Kohutova, P.; Antolin, P.; Popovas, A.; Szydlarski, M.; Hansteen, V. H. Bibcode: 2020A&A...639A..20K Altcode: 2020arXiv200503317K Context. Coronal rain consists of cool and dense plasma condensations formed in coronal loops as a result of thermal instability.
Aims: Previous numerical simulations of thermal instability and coronal rain formation have relied on the practice of artificially adding a coronal heating term to the energy equation. To reproduce large-scale characteristics of the corona, the use of more realistic coronal heating prescription is necessary.
Methods: We analysed coronal rain formation and evolution in a three-dimensional radiative magnetohydrodynamic simulation spanning from convection zone to corona which is self-consistently heated by magnetic field braiding as a result of convective motions.
Results: We investigate the spatial and temporal evolution of energy dissipation along coronal loops which become thermally unstable. Ohmic dissipation in the model leads to the heating events capable of inducing sufficient chromospheric evaporation into the loop to trigger thermal instability and condensation formation. The cooling of the thermally unstable plasma occurs on timescales that are comparable to the duration of the individual impulsive heating events. The impulsive heating has sufficient duration to trigger thermal instability in the loop but does not last long enough to lead to coronal rain limit cycles. We show that condensations can either survive and fall into the chromosphere or be destroyed by strong bursts of Joule heating associated with a magnetic reconnection events. In addition, we find that condensations can also form along open magnetic field lines.
Conclusions: We modelled, for the first time, coronal rain formation in a self-consistent 3D radiative magnetohydrodynamic simulation, in which the heating occurs mainly through the braiding and subsequent Ohmic dissipation of the magnetic field. The heating is stratified enough and lasts for long enough along specific field lines to produce the necessary chromospheric evaporation that triggers thermal instability in the corona.

Movie associated to Fig. 1 is available at https://www.aanda.org Title: Temporal and Spatial Scales in Coronal Rain Revealed by UV Imaging and Spectroscopic Observations Authors: Ishikawa, Ryohtaroh T.; Katsukawa, Yukio; Antolin, Patrick; Toriumi, Shin Bibcode: 2020SoPh..295...53I Altcode: 2020arXiv200313214I Coronal rain corresponds to cool and dense clumps in the corona accreting towards the solar surface; it is often observed above solar active regions. These clumps are generally thought to be produced by a thermal instability in the corona and their lifetime is limited by the time they take to reach the chromosphere. Although the rain usually fragments into smaller clumps while falling down, their specific spatial and temporal scales remain unclear. In addition, the observational signatures of the impact of the rain with the chromosphere have not been clarified yet. In this study, we investigate the time evolution of the velocity and intensity of coronal rain above a sunspot by analyzing coronal images obtained by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) as well as the slit-jaw images (SJIs) and spectral data taken by the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) satellite. We identify dark and bright threads moving towards the umbra in AIA images and in SJIs, respectively, and co-spatial chromospheric intensity enhancements and redshifts in three IRIS spectral lines, Mg II k 2796 Å, Si IV 1394 Å, and C II 1336 Å. The intensity enhancements and coronal rain redshifts occur almost concurrently in all the three lines, which clearly demonstrates the causal relationship with coronal rain. Furthermore, we detect bursty intensity variation with a time scale shorter than 1 minute in Mg II k, Si IV, and C II, indicating that a length scale of rain clumps is about 2.7 Mm if we multiply the typical time scale of the busty intensity variation at 30 sec by the rain velocity at 90 kms−1. Such rapid enhancements in the IRIS lines are excited within a time lag of 5.6 sec limited by the temporal resolution. These temporal and spatial scales may reflect the physical processes responsible for the rain morphology, and are suggestive of instabilities such as the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. Title: Electron Beams Cannot Directly Produce Coronal Rain Authors: Reep, Jeffrey W.; Antolin, Patrick; Bradshaw, Stephen J. Bibcode: 2020ApJ...890..100R Altcode: 2020arXiv200207669R Coronal rain is ubiquitous in flare loops, forming shortly after the onset of the solar flare. Rain is thought to be caused by a thermal instability, a localized runaway cooling of material in the corona. The models that demonstrate this require extremely long duration heating on the order of the radiative cooling time, localized near the footpoints of the loops. In flares, electron beams are thought to be the primary energy transport mechanism, driving strong footpoint heating during the impulsive phase that causes evaporation, filling and heating flare loops. Electron beams, however, do not act for a long period of time, and even supposing that they did, their heating would not remain localized at the footpoints. With a series of numerical experiments, we show directly that these two issues mean that electron beams are incapable of causing the formation of rain in flare loops. This result suggests that either there is another mechanism acting in flare loops responsible for rain, or that the modeling of the cooling of flare loops is somehow deficient. To adequately describe flares, the standard model must address this issue to account for the presence of coronal rain. Title: Multi-scale observations of thermal non-equilibrium cycles in coronal loops Authors: Froment, C.; Antolin, P.; Henriques, V. M. J.; Kohutova, P.; Rouppe van der Voort, L. H. M. Bibcode: 2020A&A...633A..11F Altcode: 2019arXiv191109710F Context. Thermal non-equilibrium (TNE) is a phenomenon that can occur in solar coronal loops when the heating is quasi-constant and highly-stratified. Under such heating conditions, coronal loops undergo cycles of evaporation and condensation. The recent observations of ubiquitous long-period intensity pulsations in coronal loops and their relationship with coronal rain have demonstrated that understanding the characteristics of TNE cycles is an essential step in constraining the circulation of mass and energy in the corona.
Aims: We report unique observations with the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope (SST) that link the captured thermal properties across the extreme spatiotemporal scales covered by TNE processes.
Methods: Within the same coronal loop bundle, we captured 6 h period coronal intensity pulsations in SDO/AIA and coronal rain observed off-limb in the chromospheric Hα and Ca II K spectral lines with SST/CRISP and SST/CHROMIS. We combined a multi-thermal analysis of the cycles with AIA and an extensive spectral characterisation of the rain clumps with the SST.
Results: We find clear evidence of evaporation-condensation cycles in the corona which are linked with periodic coronal rain showers. The high-resolution spectroscopic instruments at the SST reveal the fine-structured rain strands and allow us to probe the cooling phase of one of the cycles down to chromospheric temperatures.
Conclusions: These observations reinforce the link between long-period intensity pulsations and coronal rain. They also demonstrate the capability of TNE to shape the dynamics of active regions on the large scales as well as on the smallest scales currently resolvable.

Movies associated to Figs. 3-5, and 8 are available at https://www.aanda.org Title: Thermal instability and non-equilibrium in solar coronal loops: from coronal rain to long-period intensity pulsations Authors: Antolin, Patrick Bibcode: 2020PPCF...62a4016A Altcode: The complex interaction of the magnetic field with matter is the key to some of the most puzzling observed phenomena at multiple scales across the Universe, from tokamak plasma confinement experiments in the laboratory to the filamentary structure of the interstellar medium. A major astrophysical puzzle is the phenomenon of coronal heating, upon which the most external layer of the solar atmosphere, the corona, is sustained at multi-million degree temperatures on average. However, the corona also conceals a cooling problem. Indeed, recent observations indicate that, even more mysteriously, like snowflakes in the oven, the corona hosts large amounts of cool material termed coronal rain, hundreds of times colder and denser, that constitute the seed of the famous prominences. Numerical simulations have shown that this cold material does not stem from the inefficiency of coronal heating mechanisms, but results from the specific spatio-temporal properties of these. As such, a large fraction of coronal loops, the basic constituents of the solar corona, are suspected to be in a state of thermal non-equilibrium (TNE), characterised by heating (evaporation) and cooling (condensation) cycles whose telltale observational signatures are long-period intensity pulsations in hot lines and thermal instability-driven coronal rain in cool lines, both now ubiquitously observed. In this paper, we review this yet largely unexplored strong connection between the observed properties of hot and cool material in TNE and instability and the underlying coronal heating mechanisms. Focus is set on the long-observed coronal rain, for which significant research already exists, contrary to the recently discovered long-period intensity pulsations. We further identify the outstanding open questions in what constitutes a new, rapidly growing field of solar physics. Title: Editorial: Magnetohydrodynamic Waves in the Solar Atmosphere: Heating and Seismology Authors: Van Doorsselaere, Tom; Nakariakov, Valery M.; Li, Bo; Antolin, Patrick Bibcode: 2020FrASS...6...79V Altcode: No abstract at ADS Title: The Multi-slit Approach to Coronal Spectroscopy with the Multi-slit Solar Explorer (MUSE) Authors: De Pontieu, Bart; Martínez-Sykora, Juan; Testa, Paola; Winebarger, Amy R.; Daw, Adrian; Hansteen, Viggo; Cheung, Mark C. M.; Antolin, Patrick Bibcode: 2020ApJ...888....3D Altcode: 2019arXiv190908818D The Multi-slit Solar Explorer (MUSE) is a proposed mission aimed at understanding the physical mechanisms driving the heating of the solar corona and the eruptions that are at the foundation of space weather. MUSE contains two instruments, a multi-slit extreme ultraviolet (EUV) spectrograph and a context imager. It will simultaneously obtain EUV spectra (along 37 slits) and context images with the highest resolution in space (0.″33-0.″4) and time (1-4 s) ever achieved for the transition region (TR) and corona. The MUSE science investigation will exploit major advances in numerical modeling, and observe at the spatial and temporal scales on which competing models make testable and distinguishable predictions, thereby leading to a breakthrough in our understanding of coronal heating and the drivers of space weather. By obtaining spectra in four bright EUV lines (Fe IX 171 Å, Fe XV 284 Å, Fe XIX 108Å, Fe XXI 108 Å) covering a wide range of TR and coronal temperatures along 37 slits simultaneously, MUSE will be able to “freeze” the evolution of the dynamic coronal plasma. We describe MUSE’s multi-slit approach and show that the optimization of the design minimizes the impact of spectral lines from neighboring slits, generally allowing line parameters to be accurately determined. We also describe a Spectral Disambiguation Code to resolve multi-slit ambiguity in locations where secondary lines are bright. We use simulations of the corona and eruptions to perform validation tests and show that the multi-slit disambiguation approach allows accurate determination of MUSE observables in locations where significant multi-slit contamination occurs. Title: Cooling Condensation at Coronal Null Points and Quasi-Separatrix Layers Involving Magnetic Reconnection Authors: Liu, W.; Sun, X.; Yu, S.; Luna Bennasar, M.; Antolin, P.; Titov, V. S.; Downs, C.; Berger, T. E. Bibcode: 2019AGUFMSH11C3394L Altcode: The solar corona, Sun's outer atmosphere, is million-degrees hot and tenuous. This hot plasma, under certain conditions, can enigmatically undergo a radiative cooling instability and condense into material of 100 times cooler in the form of prominences or coronal rain. Where, when, and how such cooling condensation takes place remain poorly understood. Answers to these questions are not only of scientific importance in their own right, but also bear implications for the fundamental question of coronal heating and the chromosphere-corona mass cycle. Magnetic fields in the magnetized corona undoubtedly play a crucial role (e.g., by trapping the plasma), but where and how? We report recent imaging and spectroscopic observations from SDO/AIA/HMI and IRIS that can shed light on these puzzles. Through a systematic survey, we found that a large fraction of quiet-Sun condensations preferentially occur at the dips of coronal loops or funnels. Such dips are located at/near magnetic topological features, such as null points and quasi-separatrix layers (QSLs), which are regions characterized by high values of the squashing factor. We also identified evidence of magnetic reconnection at such locations, which can produce favorable conditions, e.g., density enhancement by compression and/or mass trapping in plasmoids, that can trigger run-away radiative cooling. We present proof-of-concept MHD simulations that demonstrate the role of reconnection in transporting cooled mass from overlying, long loops to underlying, short loops where it slide down as coronal rain. We will discuss the significance and broader implications of these results beyond solar physics. Title: Resonant absorption in expanding coronal magnetic flux tubes with uniform density Authors: Howson, T. A.; De Moortel, I.; Antolin, P.; Van Doorsselaere, T.; Wright, A. N. Bibcode: 2019A&A...631A.105H Altcode: 2019arXiv190910781H
Aims: We investigate the transfer of energy between a fundamental standing kink mode and azimuthal Alfvén waves within an expanding coronal magnetic flux tube. We consider the process of resonant absorption in a loop with a non-uniform Alfvén frequency profile but in the absence of a radial density gradient.
Methods: Using the three dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) code, Lare3d, we modelled a transversely oscillating magnetic flux tube that expands radially with height. An initially straight loop structure with a magnetic field enhancement was allowed to relax numerically towards a force-free state before a standing kink mode was introduced. The subsequent dynamics, rate of wave damping and formation of small length scales are considered.
Results: We demonstrate that the transverse gradient in Alfvén frequency required for the existence of resonant field lines can be associated with the expansion of a high field-strength flux tube from concentrated flux patches in the lower solar atmosphere. This allows for the conversion of energy between wave modes even in the absence of the transverse density profile typically assumed in wave heating models. As with standing modes in straight flux tubes, small scales are dominated by the vorticity at the loop apex and by currents close to the loop foot points. The azimuthal Alfvén wave exhibits the structure of the expanded flux tube and is therefore associated with smaller length scales close to the foot points of the flux tube than at the loop apex.
Conclusions: Resonant absorption can proceed throughout the coronal volume, even in the absence of visible, dense, loop structures. The flux tube and MHD waves considered are difficult to observe and our model highlights how estimating hidden wave power within the Sun's atmosphere can be problematic. We highlight that, for standing modes, the global properties of field lines are important for resonant absorption and coronal conditions at a single altitude will not fully determine the nature of MHD resonances. In addition, we provide a new model in partial response to the criticism that wave heating models cannot self-consistently generate or sustain the density profile upon which they typically rely. Title: Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability and Alfvénic Vortex Shedding in Solar Eruptions Authors: Syntelis, P.; Antolin, P. Bibcode: 2019ApJ...884L...4S Altcode: 2019arXiv190905716S We report on a three-dimensional MHD numerical experiment of a small-scale coronal mass ejection (CME)-like eruption propagating though a nonmagnetized solar atmosphere. We find that the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI) develops at various but specific locations at the boundary layer between the erupting field and the background atmosphere, depending on the relative angle between the velocity and magnetic field. KHI develops at the front and at two of the four sides of the eruption. KHI is suppressed at the other two sides of the eruption. We also find the development of Alfvénic vortex shedding flows at the wake of the developing CME due to the 3D geometry of the field. Forward modeling reveals that the observational detectability of the KHI in solar eruptions is confined to a narrow ≈10° range when observing off-limb, and therefore its occurrence could be underestimated due to projection effects. The new findings can have significant implications for observations, for heating, and for particle acceleration by turbulence from flow-driven instabilities associated with solar eruptions of all scales. Title: Achievements of Hinode in the first eleven years Authors: Hinode Review Team; Al-Janabi, Khalid; Antolin, Patrick; Baker, Deborah; Bellot Rubio, Luis R.; Bradley, Louisa; Brooks, David H.; Centeno, Rebecca; Culhane, J. Leonard; Del Zanna, Giulio; Doschek, George A.; Fletcher, Lyndsay; Hara, Hirohisa; Harra, Louise K.; Hillier, Andrew S.; Imada, Shinsuke; Klimchuk, James A.; Mariska, John T.; Pereira, Tiago M. D.; Reeves, Katharine K.; Sakao, Taro; Sakurai, Takashi; Shimizu, Toshifumi; Shimojo, Masumi; Shiota, Daikou; Solanki, Sami K.; Sterling, Alphonse C.; Su, Yingna; Suematsu, Yoshinori; Tarbell, Theodore D.; Tiwari, Sanjiv K.; Toriumi, Shin; Ugarte-Urra, Ignacio; Warren, Harry P.; Watanabe, Tetsuya; Young, Peter R. Bibcode: 2019PASJ...71R...1H Altcode: Hinode is Japan's third solar mission following Hinotori (1981-1982) and Yohkoh (1991-2001): it was launched on 2006 September 22 and is in operation currently. Hinode carries three instruments: the Solar Optical Telescope, the X-Ray Telescope, and the EUV Imaging Spectrometer. These instruments were built under international collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council, and its operation has been contributed to by the European Space Agency and the Norwegian Space Center. After describing the satellite operations and giving a performance evaluation of the three instruments, reviews are presented on major scientific discoveries by Hinode in the first eleven years (one solar cycle long) of its operation. This review article concludes with future prospects for solar physics research based on the achievements of Hinode. Title: Fundamental transverse vibrations of the active region solar corona Authors: Luna, M.; Oliver, R.; Antolin, P.; Arregui, I. Bibcode: 2019A&A...629A..20L Altcode: 2019arXiv190705212L Context. Some high-resolution observations have revealed that the active region solar corona is filled with a myriad of thin strands even in apparently uniform regions with no resolved loops. This fine structure can host collective oscillations involving a large portion of the corona due to the coupling of the motions of the neighbouring strands.
Aims: We study these vibrations and the possible observational effects.
Methods: We theoretically investigated the collective oscillations inherent to the fine structure of the corona. We have called them fundamental vibrations because they cannot exist in a uniform medium. We used the T-matrix technique to find the normal modes of random arrangements of parallel strands. We considered an increasing number of tubes to understand the vibrations of a huge number of tubes of a large portion of the corona. We additionally generated synthetic time-distance Doppler and line-broadening diagrams of the vibrations of a coronal region to compare with observations.
Results: We have found that the fundamental vibrations are in the form of clusters of tubes where not all the tubes participate in the collective mode. The periods are distributed over a wide band of values. The width of the band increases with the number of strands but rapidly reaches an approximately constant value. We have found an analytic approximate expression for the minimum and maximum periods of the band. The frequency band associated with the fine structure of the corona depends on the minimum separation between strands. We have found that the coupling between the strands is on a large extent and the motion of one strand is influenced by the motions of distant tubes. The synthetic Dopplergrams and line-broadening maps show signatures of collective vibrations, not present in the case of purely random individual kink vibrations.
Conclusions: We conclude that the fundamental vibrations of the corona can contribute to the energy budget of the corona and they may have an observational signature.

A movie associated to Fig. 10 is available at http:// https://www.aanda.org Title: Multi-component Decomposition of Astronomical Spectra by Compressed Sensing Authors: Cheung, Mark C. M.; De Pontieu, Bart; Martínez-Sykora, Juan; Testa, Paola; Winebarger, Amy R.; Daw, Adrian; Hansteen, Viggo; Antolin, Patrick; Tarbell, Theodore D.; Wuelser, Jean-Pierre; Young, Peter; MUSE Team Bibcode: 2019ApJ...882...13C Altcode: 2019arXiv190203890C The signal measured by an astronomical spectrometer may be due to radiation from a multi-component mixture of plasmas with a range of physical properties (e.g., temperature, Doppler velocity). Confusion between multiple components may be exacerbated if the spectrometer sensor is illuminated by overlapping spectra dispersed from different slits, with each slit being exposed to radiation from a different portion of an extended astrophysical object. We use a compressed sensing method to robustly retrieve the different components. This method can be adopted for a variety of spectrometer configurations, including single-slit, multi-slit (e.g., the proposed MUlti-slit Solar Explorer mission), and slot spectrometers (which produce overlappograms). Title: Coronal Condensation at Preferential Topological Locations: The Birth of Solar Prominences and Coronal Rain Authors: Liu, Wei; Sun, Xudong; Yu, Sijie; Antolin, Patrick; Titov, Viacheslav; Downs, Cooper; Berger, Thomas Bibcode: 2019AAS...23412502L Altcode: The million-degree hot and tenuous solar coronal plasma, under certain conditions, can enigmatically undergo a radiative cooling instability and condense into material of 100 times cooler in the form of prominences or coronal rain. Where, when, and how such cooling condensation takes place remain poorly understood. Answers to these questions are not only of scientific importance in their own right, but also bear implications for the fundamental question of coronal heating and the chromosphere-corona mass cycle. Magnetic fields in the magnetized corona undoubtedly play a crucial role (e.g., by trapping the plasma), but where and how? We report recent imaging and spectroscopic observations from SDO/AIA/HMI and IRIS that can shed light on these puzzles. Through a systematic survey, we found that a large fraction of quiet-Sun condensations preferentially occur at the dips of coronal loops or funnels. Such dips are located at/near magnetic topological features, such as null points and quasi-separatrix layers (QSLs), which are regions characterized by high values of the squashing factor. We also identified evidence of magnetic reconnection at such locations, which can produce favorable conditions, e.g., density enhancement by compression and/or mass trapping in plasmoids, that can trigger run-away radiative cooling. We will discuss the significance and broader implications of these novel observations. Title: MHD simulations of the in situ generation of kink and sausage waves in the solar corona by collision of dense plasma clumps Authors: Pagano, P.; Van Damme, H. J.; Antolin, P.; De Moortel, I. Bibcode: 2019A&A...626A..53P Altcode: 2019arXiv190503749P Context. Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves are ubiquitous in the solar corona where the highly structured magnetic fields provide efficient wave guides for their propagation. While MHD waves have been observed originating from lower layers of the solar atmosphere, recent studies have shown that some can be generated in situ by the collision of dense counter-propagating flows.
Aims: In this theoretical study, we analyse the mechanism that triggers the propagation of kink and sausage modes in the solar corona following the collision of counter-propagating flows, and how the properties of the flows affect the properties of the generated waves.
Methods: To study in detail this mechanism we ran a series of ideal 2D and 3D MHD simulations where we varied the properties of the counter-propagating flows; by means of a simple technique to estimate the amplitudes of the kink and sausage modes, we investigated their role in the generation and propagation of the MHD waves.
Results: We find that the amplitude of the waves is largely dependent on the kinetic energy of the flows, and that the onset of kink or sausage modes depends on the asymmetries between the colliding blobs. Moreover, the initial wavelength of the MHD waves is associated with the magnetic configuration resulting from the collision of the flows. We also find that genuine 3D systems respond with smaller wave amplitudes.
Conclusions: In this study, we present a parameter space description of the mechanism that leads to the generation of MHD waves from the collision of flows in the corona. Future observations of these waves can be used to understand the properties of the plasma and magnetic field of the solar corona.

The movies associated to Figs. 2 and 21 are available at https://www.aanda.org Title: Multi-component Decomposition of Astronomical Spectra by Compressed Sensing Authors: Cheung, Mark; De Pontieu, Bart; Martinez-Sykora, Juan; Testa, Paola; Winebarger, Amy R.; Daw, Adrian N.; Hansteen, Viggo; Antolin, Patrick; Tarbell, Theodore D.; Wuelser, Jean-Pierre; Young, Peter R. Bibcode: 2019AAS...23411603C Altcode: The signal measured by an astronomical spectrometer may be due to radiation from a multi-component mixture of plasmas with a range of physical properties (e.g. temperature, Doppler velocity). Confusion between multiple components may be exacerbated if the spectrometer sensor is illuminated by overlapping spectra dispersed from different slits, with each slit being exposed to radiation from a different portion of an extended astrophysical object. We use a compressed sensing method to robustly retrieve the different components. This method can be adopted for a variety of spectrometer configurations, including single-slit, multi-slit (e.g., the proposed MUlti-slit Solar Explorer mission; MUSE) and slot spectrometers (which produce overlappograms). Title: Amplitudes and energy fluxes of simulated decayless kink oscillations. Authors: Karampelas, Konstantinos; Van Doorsselaere, Tom; Pascoe, David J.; Guo, Mingzhe; Antolin, Patrick Bibcode: 2019FrASS...6...38K Altcode: 2019arXiv190602001K Recent observations with the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument on the SDO spacecraft have revealed the existence of decayless coronal kink oscillations. These transverse oscillations are not connected to any external phenomena like flares or coronal mass ejections, and show significantly lower amplitudes than the externally excited decaying oscillations. Numerical studies have managed to reproduce such decayless oscillations in the form of footpoint driven standing waves in coronal loops, and to treat them as a possible mechanism for wave heating of the solar corona. Our aim is to investigate the correlation between the observed amplitudes of the oscillations and input the energy flux from different drivers. We perform 3D MHD simulations in single, straight, density-enhanced coronal flux tubes for different drivers, in the presence of gravity. Synthetic images at different spectral lines are constructed with the use of the FoMo code. The development of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability leads to mixing of plasma between the flux tube and the hot corona. Once the KHI is fully developed, the amplitudes of the decayless oscillations show only a weak correlation with the driver strength. We find that low amplitude decayless kink oscillations may correspond to significant energy fluxes of the order of the radiative losses for the Quiet Sun. A clear correlation between the input energy flux and the observed amplitudes from our synthetic imaging data cannot be established. Stronger drivers lead to higher vales of the line width estimated energy fluxes. Finally, estimations of the energy fluxes by spectroscopic data are affected by the LOS angle, favoring combined analysis of imaging and spectroscopic data for single oscillating loops. Title: The effects of numerical resolution, heating timescales and background heating on thermal non-equilibrium in coronal loops Authors: Johnston, C. D.; Cargill, P. J.; Antolin, P.; Hood, A. W.; De Moortel, I.; Bradshaw, S. J. Bibcode: 2019A&A...625A.149J Altcode: 2019arXiv190407287J Thermal non-equilibrium (TNE) is believed to be a potentially important process in understanding some properties of the magnetically closed solar corona. Through one-dimensional hydrodynamic models, this paper addresses the importance of the numerical spatial resolution, footpoint heating timescales and background heating on TNE. Inadequate transition region (TR) resolution can lead to significant discrepancies in TNE cycle behaviour, with TNE being suppressed in under-resolved loops. A convergence on the periodicity and plasma properties associated with TNE required spatial resolutions of less than 2 km for a loop of length 180 Mm. These numerical problems can be resolved using an approximate method that models the TR as a discontinuity using a jump condition, as proposed by Johnston et al. (2017a, A&A, 597, A81; 2017b, A&A, 605, A8). The resolution requirements (and so computational cost) are greatly reduced while retaining good agreement with fully resolved results. Using this approximate method we (i) identify different regimes for the response of coronal loops to time-dependent footpoint heating including one where TNE does not arise and (ii) demonstrate that TNE in a loop with footpoint heating is suppressed unless the background heating is sufficiently small. The implications for the generality of TNE are discussed. Title: Heating Effects from Driven Transverse and Alfvén Waves in Coronal Loops Authors: Guo, Mingzhe; Van Doorsselaere, Tom; Karampelas, Konstantinos; Li, Bo; Antolin, Patrick; De Moortel, Ineke Bibcode: 2019ApJ...870...55G Altcode: 2018arXiv181107608G Recent numerical studies revealed that transverse motions of coronal loops can induce the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI). This process could be important in coronal heating because it leads to dissipation of energy at small spatial scale plasma interactions. Meanwhile, small-amplitude decayless oscillations in coronal loops have been discovered recently in observations of SDO/AIA. We model such oscillations in coronal loops and study wave heating effects, considering a kink and Alfvén driver separately and a mixed driver at the bottom of flux tubes. Both the transverse and Alfvén oscillations can lead to the KHI. Meanwhile, the Alfvén oscillations established in loops will experience phase mixing. Both processes will generate small spatial scale structures, which can help the dissipation of wave energy. Indeed, we observe the increase of internal energy and temperature in loop regions. The heating is more pronounced for the simulation containing the mixed kink and Alfvén driver. This means that the mixed wave modes can lead to a more efficient energy dissipation in the turbulent state of the plasma and that the KHI eddies act as an agent to dissipate energy in other wave modes. Furthermore, we also obtained forward-modeling results using the FoMo code. We obtained forward models that are very similar to the observations of decayless oscillations. Due to the limited resolution of instruments, neither Alfvén modes nor the fine structures are observable. Therefore, this numerical study shows that Alfvén modes probably can coexist with kink modes, leading to enhanced heating. Title: The Coronal Monsoon: Thermal Nonequilibrium Revealed by Periodic Coronal Rain Authors: Auchère, Frédéric; Froment, Clara; Soubrié, Elie; Antolin, Patrick; Oliver, Ramon; Pelouze, Gabriel; Voyeux, Alfred Bibcode: 2018csc..confE.114A Altcode: We report on the discovery of periodic coronal rain in an off-limb sequence of SDO/AIA images. The showers are co-spatial and in phase with periodic (6.6 hr) intensity pulsations of coronal loops of the sort described by Auchère et al. (2014) and Froment et al. (2015, 2017. These new observations make possible a unified description of both phenomena. Coronal rain and periodic intensity pulsations of loops are two manifestations of the same physical process: evaporation / condensation cycles resulting from a state of thermal nonequilibrium (TNE). The fluctuations around coronal temperatures produce the intensity pulsations of loops, and rain falls along their legs if thermal runaway cools the periodic condensations down and below transition-region (TR)temperatures. This scenario is in line with the predictions of numerical models of quasi-steadily and footpoint heated loops. This event of periodic coronal rain is compared with a similar event showing only pulsations at coronal temperatures but no significant cool rain fall. For both events we have stereoscopic observations from the SDO and STEREO spacecraft which allows reconstruction of the 3D loop geometries. Comparison with numerical simulations suggest that these two events correspond to two regimes of TNE: one with "full condensations" (coronal rain) and another in which "incomplete condensations" start to develop but are pushed down one loop leg before they can reach chromospheric temperatures. These new observations impose severe constrains on the spatio-temporal distribution of coronal heating. Title: Broadening of the differential emission measure by multi-shelled and turbulent loops Authors: Van Doorsselaere, T.; Antolin, P.; Karampelas, K. Bibcode: 2018A&A...620A..65V Altcode: 2018arXiv181006300V Context. Broad differential emission measure (DEM) distributions in the corona are a sign of multi-thermal plasma along the line-of-sight. Traditionally, this is interpreted as evidence of multi-stranded loops. Recently, however, it has been shown that multi-stranded loops are unlikely to exist in the solar corona, because of their instability to transverse perturbations.
Aims: We aim to test if loop models subject to the transverse wave-induced Kelvin-Helmholtz (TWIKH) instability result in broad DEMs, potentially explaining the observations.
Methods: We took simulation snapshots and compute the numerical DEM. Moreover, we performed forward-modelling in the relevant AIA channels before reconstructing the DEM.
Results: We find that turbulent loop models broaden their initial DEM, because of the turbulent mixing. The width of the DEM is determined by the initial temperature contrast with the exterior.
Conclusions: We conclude that impulsively excited loop models have a rather narrow DEM, but that continuously driven models result in broad DEMs that are comparable to the observations. Title: Evolution of the Transverse Density Structure of Oscillating Coronal Loops Inferred by Forward Modeling of EUV Intensity Authors: Goddard, C. R.; Antolin, P.; Pascoe, D. J. Bibcode: 2018ApJ...863..167G Altcode: Recent developments in the observation and modeling of kink oscillations of coronal loops have led to heightened interest over the last few years. The modification of the Transverse Density Profile (TDP) of oscillating coronal loops by nonlinear effects, particularly the Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability (KHI), is investigated. How this evolution may be detected is established, in particular, when the KHI vortices may not be observed directly. A model for the loop’s TDP is used that includes a finite inhomogeneous layer and homogeneous core, with a linear transition between them. The evolution of the loop’s transverse intensity profile from numerical simulations of kink oscillations is analyzed. Bayesian inference and forward modeling techniques are applied to infer the evolution of the TDP from the intensity profiles, in a manner that may be applied to observations. The strongest observational evidence for the development of the KHI is found to be a widening of the loop’s inhomogeneous layer, which may be inferred for sufficiently well resolved loops, i.e., >15 data points across the loop. The main signatures when observing the core of the loop (for this specific loop model) during the oscillation are a widening inhomogeneous layer, decreasing intensity, an unchanged radius, and visible fine transverse structuring when the resolution is sufficient. The appearance of these signatures are delayed for loops with wider inhomogeneous layers, and quicker for loops oscillating at higher amplitudes. These cases should also result in stronger observational signatures, with visible transverse structuring appearing for wide loops observed at the resolution of current instruments. Title: Evolution of the transverse density structure of oscillating coronal loops inferred by forward modelling of EUV intensity Authors: Rhys Goddard, Christopher; Antolin, Patrick; Pascoe, David James Bibcode: 2018arXiv180803476R Altcode: Recent developments in the observation and modelling of kink oscillations of coronal loops have led to heightened interest over the last few years. The modification of the Transverse Density Profile (TDP) of oscillating coronal loops by non-linear effects, in particular the Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability (KHI), is investigated. How this evolution may be detected is established, in particular, when the KHI vortices may not be observed directly. A model for the loop's TDP is used which includes a finite inhomogeneous layer and homogeneous core, with a linear transition between them. The evolution of the loop's transverse intensity profile from numerical simulations of kink oscillations is analysed. Bayesian inference and forward modelling techniques are applied to infer the evolution of the TDP from the intensity profiles, in a manner which may be applied to observations. The strongest observational evidence for the development of the KHI is found to be a widening of the loop's inhomogeneous layer, which may be inferred for sufficiently well resolved loops, i.e $>$ 15 data points across the loop. The main signatures when observing the core of the loop (for this specific loop model) during the oscillation are: a widening inhomogeneous layer, decreasing intensity, an unchanged radius, and visible fine transverse structuring when the resolution is sufficient. The appearance of these signatures are delayed for loops with wider inhomogeneous layers, and quicker for loops oscillating at higher amplitudes. These cases should also result in stronger observational signatures, with visible transverse structuring appearing for wide loops observed at SDO/AIA resolution. Title: Excitation and Evolution of Transverse Loop Oscillations by Coronal Rain Authors: Verwichte, Erwin; Kohutova, Petra; Antolin, Patrick; Rowlands, George; Neukirch, Thomas Bibcode: 2018IAUS..335...36V Altcode: We present evidence of the excitation of vertically polarised transverse loop oscillations triggered by a catastrophic cooling of a coronal loop with two thirds of the loop mass comprising of cool rain mass. The nature and excitation of oscillations associated with coronal rain is not well understood. We consider observations of coronal rain using data from IRIS, SOT/Hinode and AIA/SDO in a bid to elucidate the excitation mechanism and evolution of wave characteristics. We apply an analytical model of wave-rain interaction, that predicts the inertial excitation amplitude of transverse loop oscillations as a function of the rain mass, to deduce the relative rain mass. It is consistent with the evolution of the oscillation period showing the loop losing a third of its mass due to falling coronal rain in a 10-15 minute time period. Title: What brakes coronal rain? Authors: Oliver, Ramon; Khodachenko, Maxim; Terradas, Jaume; Soler, Roberto; Antolin, Patrick; Zaqarashvili, Teimuraz; Boulharrak, Adel Bibcode: 2018cosp...42E2505O Altcode: Coronal rain blobs usually fall toward the solar surface with a smaller than free-fall acceleration. After conducting numerical simulations with different setups, we conclude that once a dense blob forms and starts to fall along a coronal loop, a pressure gradient is established along the loop such that higher (smaller) pressure can be found below (above) the blob. This pressure gradient produces an upward force that partially counteracts gravity and leads to the observed non-free-fall dynamics. Title: Cool Material in the Hot Solar Corona and the Chromosphere-Corona Mass Cycle Authors: Liu, Wei; Vial, Jean-Claude; Antolin, Patrick; Sun, Xudong; Berger, Thomas Bibcode: 2018cosp...42E2052L Altcode: In the million-degree hot and tenuous solar corona, under favorable conditions, some mass can undergo a radiative cooling instability and condense into material of 100 times cooler in two distinct forms - prominences and coronal rain. Being at similar temperatures, they exhibit contrasting morphologies and behaviors: a quiescent prominence usually consists of numerous long-lasting, filamentary downflow threads, while coronal rain consists of transient mass blobs falling at comparably higher speeds along well-defined, curved paths (e.g., guided by coronal loops). We report recent imaging and spectroscopic observations from SDO/AIA and IRIS of a hybrid prominence-coronal rain complex structure that suggest different magnetic environments being responsible for such distinctions. We also present an ensemble of observations of the so-called funnel prominences that reside near the dips of magnetic funnels. Regardless of their morphological and behavioral differences, a large fraction of prominence and coronal rain material eventually falls back to the chromosphere and serves as the return flow of the so-called chromosphere-corona mass cycle (the other half of this cycle is the upward transport of heated mass from the chromosphere to the corona). We estimate the downflow mass fluxes in prominences and coronal rain, and compare them with the coronal mass budget in this cycle and with the mass loss to the solar wind and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). We will discuss the broad physical implications of these observations for fundamental questions, such as coronal heating and beyond. Title: The Coronal Monsoon: Thermal Nonequilibrium Revealed by Periodic Coronal Rain Authors: Auchere, Frederic; Soubrie, Elie; Antolin, Patrick; Froment, Clara; Oliver, Ramon; Pelouze, Gabriel Bibcode: 2018cosp...42E.144A Altcode: We report on the discovery of periodic coronal rain in an off-limb sequence of SDO/AIA images. The showers are co-spatial and in phase with periodic (6.6 hr) intensity pulsations of coronal loops of the sort described by Auchère et al. (2014) and Froment et al. (2015, 2017}. These new observations make possible a unified description of both phenomena. Coronal rain and periodic intensity pulsations of loops are two manifestations of the same physical process: evaporation / condensation cycles resulting from a state of thermal nonequilibrium (TNE). The fluctuations around coronal temperatures produce the intensity pulsations of loops, and rain falls along their legs if thermal runaway cools the periodic condensations down and below transition-region (TR) temperatures. This scenario is in line with the predictions of numerical models of quasi-steadily and footpoint heated loops.This event of periodic coronal rain is compared with a similar event showing only pulsations at coronal temperatures but no significant cool rain fall. For both events we have stereoscopic observations from the SDO and STEREO spacecraft which allows reconstruction of the 3D loop geometries. Comparison with numerical simulations suggest that these two events correspond to two regimes of TNE: one with "full condensations" (coronal rain) and another in which "incomplete condensations" start to develop but are pushed down one loop leg before they can reach chromospheric temperatures.These new observations impose severe constrains on the spatio-temporal distribution of coronal heating. Title: Reconnection Microjets in the Solar Corona Authors: Antolin, Patrick; Pagano, Paolo; De Moortel, Ineke Bibcode: 2018cosp...42E..96A Altcode: Coronal rain is one of the highest resolution tracers of the coronal magnetic field. In this work the dynamics of a prominence/coronal rain complex are analysed based on spectroscopic and imaging observations with IRIS, Hinode/SOT and SDO/AIA. The loop-like magnetic field arcade hosting the rain is observed to slowly expand in height. Prior and especially during this movement, several ( 100) small ( 1 arcsec) and short (<20 sec) bursts of plasma perpendicular to the loop arcade are captured in the Si IV and Mg II lines. The line profiles are broad and asymmetric with long tails above 100 km/s. These microjets are accompanied with strong intensity enhancements co-spatially and along the loop in most of the AIA channels, indicating significant energy release increasing the temperature to several MK. Some events generate transverse MHD waves and the strongest events are accompanied by ejection of plasmoid-like structures. We interpret these microjets as magnetic reconnection outflows, produced by component reconnection in a strong guide field. The originally cold conditions of the rain allows, in this case, a unique high resolution glance into the reconnection dynamics in low beta plasmas, and marks the X-target in the Sun for next-generation telescopes. Title: In Situ Generation of Transverse Magnetohydrodynamic Waves from Colliding Flows in the Solar Corona Authors: Antolin, Patrick; Pagano, Paolo; De Moortel, Ineke; Nakariakov, Valery M. Bibcode: 2018ApJ...861L..15A Altcode: 2018arXiv180700395A Transverse magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves permeate the solar atmosphere and are a candidate for coronal heating. However, the origin of these waves is still unclear. In this Letter, we analyze coordinated observations from Hinode/Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) and Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph ( IRIS) of a prominence/coronal rain loop-like structure at the limb of the Sun. Cool and dense downflows and upflows are observed along the structure. A collision between a downward and an upward flow with an estimated energy flux of 107-108 erg cm-2 s-1 is observed to generate oscillatory transverse perturbations of the strands with an estimated ≈40 km s-1 total amplitude, and a short-lived brightening event with the plasma temperature increasing to at least 105 K. We interpret this response as sausage and kink transverse MHD waves based on 2D MHD simulations of plasma flow collision. The lengths, density, and velocity differences between the colliding clumps and the strength of the magnetic field are major parameters defining the response to the collision. The presence of asymmetry between the clumps (angle of impact surface and/or offset of flowing axis) is crucial for generating a kink mode. Using the observed values, we successfully reproduce the observed transverse perturbations and brightening, and show adiabatic heating to coronal temperatures. The numerical modeling indicates that the plasma β in this loop-like structure is confined between 0.09 and 0.36. These results suggest that such collisions from counter-streaming flows can be a source of in situ transverse MHD waves, and that for cool and dense prominence conditions such waves could have significant amplitudes. Title: Transverse Wave Induced Kelvin-Helmholtz Rolls in Spicules Authors: Antolin, P.; Schmit, D.; Pereira, T. M. D.; De Pontieu, B.; De Moortel, I. Bibcode: 2018ApJ...856...44A Altcode: 2018arXiv180300821A In addition to their jet-like dynamic behavior, spicules usually exhibit strong transverse speeds, multi-stranded structure, and heating from chromospheric to transition region temperatures. In this work we first analyze Hinode and IRIS observations of spicules and find different behaviors in terms of their Doppler velocity evolution and collective motion of their sub-structure. Some have a Doppler shift sign change that is rather fixed along the spicule axis, and lack coherence in the oscillatory motion of strand-like structure, matching rotation models, or long-wavelength torsional Alfvén waves. Others exhibit a Doppler shift sign change at maximum displacement and coherent motion of their strands, suggesting a collective magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) wave. By comparing with an idealized 3D MHD simulation combined with radiative transfer modeling, we analyze the role of transverse MHD waves and associated instabilities in spicule-like features. We find that transverse wave induced Kelvin-Helmholtz (TWIKH) rolls lead to coherence of strand-like structure in imaging and spectral maps, as seen in some observations. The rapid transverse dynamics and the density and temperature gradients at the spicule boundary lead to ring-shaped Mg II k and Ca II H source functions in the transverse cross-section, potentially allowing IRIS to capture the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability dynamics. Twists and currents propagate along the spicule at Alfvénic speeds, and the temperature variations within TWIKH rolls, produce the sudden appearance/disappearance of strands seen in Doppler velocity and in Ca II H intensity. However, only a mild intensity increase in higher-temperature lines is obtained, suggesting there is an additional heating mechanism at work in spicules. Title: The Coronal Monsoon: Thermal Nonequilibrium Revealed by Periodic Coronal Rain Authors: Auchère, Frédéric; Froment, Clara; Soubrié, Elie; Antolin, Patrick; Oliver, Ramon; Pelouze, Gabriel Bibcode: 2018ApJ...853..176A Altcode: 2018arXiv180201852A We report on the discovery of periodic coronal rain in an off-limb sequence of Solar Dynamics Observatory/Atmospheric Imaging Assembly images. The showers are co-spatial and in phase with periodic (6.6 hr) intensity pulsations of coronal loops of the sort described by Auchère et al. and Froment et al. These new observations make possible a unified description of both phenomena. Coronal rain and periodic intensity pulsations of loops are two manifestations of the same physical process: evaporation/condensation cycles resulting from a state of thermal nonequilibrium. The fluctuations around coronal temperatures produce the intensity pulsations of loops, and rain falls along their legs if thermal runaway cools the periodic condensations down and below transition-region temperatures. This scenario is in line with the predictions of numerical models of quasi-steadily and footpoint heated loops. The presence of coronal rain—albeit non-periodic—in several other structures within the studied field of view implies that this type of heating is at play on a large scale. Title: Driven Transverse Waves Lead to Turbulent Coronal Loops and Heating Authors: Van Doorsselaere, T.; Karampelas, K.; Magyar, N.; Antolin, P.; Goossens, M. L. Bibcode: 2017AGUFMSH41C..05V Altcode: In this talk, I will show our recent results on 3D simulations of coronal loops driven with transverse waves at the footpoints. We find that the transverse waves convert to turbulence via the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (for standing waves) or uniturbulence (for propagating waves). The latter is turbulence generated from the interaction of the driven propagating waves with the counterpropagating waves which are generated in-situ because of the plasma structure. Both of these turbulence generation mechanisms lead to fully turbulent loops, which allow for efficient energy dissipation and heating. Title: Energetics of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability induced by transverse waves in twisted coronal loops Authors: Howson, T. A.; De Moortel, I.; Antolin, P. Bibcode: 2017A&A...607A..77H Altcode: 2017arXiv170804124H
Aims: We quantify the effects of twisted magnetic fields on the development of the magnetic Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI) in transversely oscillating coronal loops.
Methods: We modelled a fundamental standing kink mode in a straight, density-enhanced magnetic flux tube using the magnetohydrodynamics code, Lare3d. In order to evaluate the impact of an azimuthal component of the magnetic field, various degrees of twist were included within the flux tube's magnetic field.
Results: The process of resonant absorption is only weakly affected by the presence of a twisted magnetic field. However, the subsequent evolution of the KHI is sensitive to the strength of the azimuthal component of the field. Increased twist values inhibit the deformation of the loop's density profile, which is associated with the growth of the instability. Despite this, much smaller scales in the magnetic field are generated when there is a non-zero azimuthal component present. Hence, the instability is more energetic in cases with (even weakly) twisted fields. Field aligned flows at the loop apex are established in a twisted regime once the instability has formed. Further, in the straight field case, there is no net vertical component of vorticity when integrated across the loop. However, the inclusion of azimuthal magnetic field generates a preferred direction for the vorticity which oscillates during the kink mode.
Conclusions: The KHI may have implications for wave heating in the solar atmosphere due to the creation of small length scales and the generation of a turbulent regime. Whilst magnetic twist does suppress the development of the vortices associated with the instability, the formation of the KHI in a twisted regime will be accompanied by greater Ohmic dissipation due to the larger currents that are produced, even if only weak twist is present. The presence of magnetic twist will likely make the instability more difficult to detect in the corona, but will enhance its contribution to heating the solar atmosphere. Further, the development of velocities along the loop may have observational applications for inferring the presence of magnetic twist within coronal structures. Title: Fine Structure and Dynamics of the Solar Atmosphere Authors: Vargas Domínguez, S.; Kosovichev, A. G.; Antolin, P.; Harra, L. Bibcode: 2017IAUS..327.....V Altcode: No abstract at ADS Title: The Fate of Cool Material in the Hot Corona: Solar Prominences and Coronal Rain Authors: Liu, Wei; Antolin, Patrick; Sun, Xudong; Vial, Jean-Claude; Berger, Thomas Bibcode: 2017SPD....4810501L Altcode: As an important chain of the chromosphere-corona mass cycle, some of the million-degree hot coronal mass undergoes a radiative cooling instability and condenses into material at chromospheric or transition-region temperatures in two distinct forms - prominences and coronal rain (some of which eventually falls back to the chromosphere). A quiescent prominence usually consists of numerous long-lasting, filamentary downflow threads, while coronal rain consists of transient mass blobs falling at comparably higher speeds along well-defined paths. It remains puzzling why such material of similar temperatures exhibit contrasting morphologies and behaviors. We report recent SDO/AIA and IRIS observations that suggest different magnetic environments being responsible for such distinctions. Specifically, in a hybrid prominence-coronal rain complex structure, we found that the prominence material is formed and resides near magnetic null points that favor the radiative cooling process and provide possibly a high plasma-beta environment suitable for the existence of meandering prominence threads. As the cool material descends, it turns into coronal rain tied onto low-lying coronal loops in a likely low-beta environment. Such structures resemble to certain extent the so-called coronal spiders or cloud prominences, but the observations reported here provide critical new insights. We will discuss the broad physical implications of these observations for fundamental questions, such as coronal heating and beyond (e.g., in astrophysical and/or laboratory plasma environments). Title: Heating by transverse waves in simulated coronal loops Authors: Karampelas, K.; Van Doorsselaere, T.; Antolin, P. Bibcode: 2017A&A...604A.130K Altcode: 2017arXiv170602640K Context. Recent numerical studies of oscillating flux tubes have established the significance of resonant absorption in the damping of propagating transverse oscillations in coronal loops. The nonlinear nature of the mechanism has been examined alongside the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, which is expected to manifest in the resonant layers at the edges of the flux tubes. While these two processes have been hypothesized to heat coronal loops through the dissipation of wave energy into smaller scales, the occurring mixing with the hotter surroundings can potentially hide this effect.
Aims: We aim to study the effects of wave heating from driven and standing kink waves in a coronal loop.
Methods: Using the MPI-AMRVAC code, we perform ideal, three dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of both (a) footpoint driven and (b) free standing oscillations in a straight coronal flux tube, in the presence of numerical resistivity.
Results: We have observed the development of Kelvin-Helmholtz eddies at the loop boundary layer of all three models considered here, as well as an increase of the volume averaged temperature inside the loop. The main heating mechanism in our setups was Ohmic dissipation, as indicated by the higher values for the temperatures and current densities located near the footpoints. The introduction of a temperature gradient between the inner tube and the surrounding plasma, suggests that the mixing of the two regions, in the case of hotter environment, greatly increases the temperature of the tube at the site of the strongest turbulence, beyond the contribution of the aforementioned wave heating mechanism.

Three movies associated to Fig. 1 are available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org Title: The effects of resistivity and viscosity on the Kelvin- Helmholtz instability in oscillating coronal loops Authors: Howson, T. A.; De Moortel, I.; Antolin, P. Bibcode: 2017A&A...602A..74H Altcode: 2017arXiv170302423H
Aims: We investigate the effects of resistivity and viscosity on the onset and growth of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI) in an oscillating coronal loop.
Methods: We modelled a standing kink wave in a density-enhanced loop with the three dimensional (3D), resistive magnetohydrodynamics code, Lare3d. We conducted a parameter study on the viscosity and resistivity coefficients to examine the effects of dissipation on the KHI.
Results: Enhancing the viscosity (ν) and resistivity (η) acts to suppress the KHI. Larger values of η and ν delay the formation of the instability and, in some cases, prevent the onset completely. This leads to the earlier onset of heating for smaller values of the transport coefficients. We note that viscosity has a greater effect on the development of the KHI than resistivity. Furthermore, when using anomalous resistivity, the Ohmic heating rate associated with the KHI may be greater than that associated with the phase mixing that occurs in an instability-suppressed regime (using uniform resistivity).
Conclusions: From our study, it is clear that the heating rate crucially depends on the formation of small length scales (influenced by the numerical resolution) as well as the values of resistivity and viscosity. As larger values of the transport coefficients suppress the KHI, the onset of heating is delayed but the heating rate is larger. As increased numerical resolution allows smaller length scales to develop, the heating rate will be higher even for the same values of η and ν. Title: Observational signatures of transverse MHD waves and associated dynamic instabilities Authors: Antolin, Patrick; De Moortel, Ineke; Van Doorsselaere, Tom; Yokoyama, Takaaki Bibcode: 2017arXiv170200775A Altcode: MHD waves permeate the solar atmosphere and constitute potential coronal heating agents. Yet, the waves detected so far may be but a small subset of the true existing wave power. Detection is limited by instrumental constraints, but also by wave processes that localise the wave power in undetectable spatial scales. In this study we conduct 3D MHD simulations and forward modelling of standing transverse MHD waves in coronal loops with uniform and non-uniform temperature variation in the perpendicular cross-section. The observed signatures are largely dominated by the combination of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI), resonant absorption and phase mixing. In the presence of a cross-loop temperature gradient we find that emission lines sensitive to the loop core catch different signatures than those more sensitive to the loop boundary and the surrounding corona, leading to an out-of-phase intensity modulation produced by the KHI mixing. Common signatures to all considered models include an intensity and loop width modulation at half the kink period, fine strand-like structure, a characteristic arrow-shaped structure in the Doppler maps, overall line broadening in time but particularly at the loop edges. For our model, most of these features can be captured with a spatial resolution of $0.33\arcsec$ and spectral resolution of 25~km~s$^{-1}$, although severe over-estimation of the line width is obtained. Resonant absorption leads to a significant decrease of the observed kinetic energy from Doppler motions over time, which is not recovered by a corresponding increase in the line width from phase mixing and the KHI motions. We estimate this hidden wave energy to be a factor of $5-10$ of the observed value. Title: Kinematics of coronal rain in a transversely oscillating loop: Ponderomotive force and rain-excited oscillations Authors: Verwichte, E.; Antolin, P.; Rowlands, G.; Kohutova, P.; Neukirch, T. Bibcode: 2017A&A...598A..57V Altcode: Context. Coronal rain is composed of cool dense blobs that form in solar coronal loops and are a manifestation of catastrophic cooling linked to thermal instability. Once formed, rain falls towards the solar surface at sub-ballistic speeds, which is not well understood. Pressure forces seem to be the prime candidate to explain this. In many observations rain is accompanied by transverse oscillations and the interaction between rain and these oscillations needs to be explored.
Aims: Therefore, an alternative kinematic model for coronal rain kinematics in transversely oscillating loops is developed to understand the physical nature of the observed sub-ballistic falling motion of rain. This model explicitly explores the role of the ponderomotive force arising from the transverse oscillation on the rain motion and the capacity of rain to excite wave motion.
Methods: An analytical model is presented that describes a rain blob guided by the coronal magnetic field supporting a one-dimensional shear Alfvén wave as a point mass on an oscillating string. The model includes gravity and the ponderomotive force from the oscillation acting on the mass and the inertia of the mass acting on the oscillation.
Results: The kinematics of rain in the limit of negligible rain mass are explored and falling and trapped regimes are found, depending on wave amplitude. In the trapped regime for the fundamental mode, the rain blob bounces back and forth around the loop top at a long period that is inversely proportional to the oscillation amplitude. The model is compared with several observational rain studies, including one in-depth comparison with an observation that shows rain with up-and-down bobbing motion. The role of rain inertia in exciting transverse oscillations is explored in inclined loops.
Conclusions: It is found that the model requires displacement amplitudes of the transverse oscillation that are typically an order of magnitude larger than observed to explain the measured sub-ballistic motion of the rain. Therefore, it is concluded that the ponderomotive force is not the primary reason for understanding sub-ballistic motion, but it plays a role in cases of large loop oscillations. The appearance of rain causes the excitation of small-amplitude transverse oscillations that may explain observed events and provide a seismological tool to measure rain mass. Title: Observational Signatures of Transverse Magnetohydrodynamic Waves and Associated Dynamic Instabilities in Coronal Flux Tubes Authors: Antolin, P.; De Moortel, I.; Van Doorsselaere, T.; Yokoyama, T. Bibcode: 2017ApJ...836..219A Altcode: Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves permeate the solar atmosphere and constitute potential coronal heating agents. Yet, the waves detected so far may be but a small subset of the true existing wave power. Detection is limited by instrumental constraints but also by wave processes that localize the wave power in undetectable spatial scales. In this study, we conduct 3D MHD simulations and forward modeling of standing transverse MHD waves in coronal loops with uniform and non-uniform temperature variation in the perpendicular cross-section. The observed signatures are largely dominated by the combination of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI), resonant absorption, and phase mixing. In the presence of a cross-loop temperature gradient, we find that emission lines sensitive to the loop core catch different signatures compared to those that are more sensitive to the loop boundary and the surrounding corona, leading to an out-of-phase intensity and Doppler velocity modulation produced by KHI mixing. In all of the considered models, common signatures include an intensity and loop width modulation at half the kink period, a fine strand-like structure, a characteristic arrow-shaped structure in the Doppler maps, and overall line broadening in time but particularly at the loop edges. For our model, most of these features can be captured with a spatial resolution of 0.″33 and a spectral resolution of 25 km s-1, although we do obtain severe over-estimation of the line width. Resonant absorption leads to a significant decrease of the observed kinetic energy from Doppler motions over time, which is not recovered by a corresponding increase in the line width from phase mixing and KHI motions. We estimate this hidden wave energy to be a factor of 5-10 of the observed value. Title: Reconnection Microjets in the Pre-eruption Phase of a Prominence/Coronal Rain Complex Authors: Antolin, P.; Mehta, T.; Conlon, T.; De Moortel, I. Bibcode: 2016AGUFMSH43C2582A Altcode: Coronal rain is known to be one of the highest resolution tracers of the coronal magnetic field. In this work the dynamics of a prominence/coronal rain complex are analysed based on imaging and spectroscopic observations with IRIS. Prior to eruption, the loop-like magnetic field arcade hosting the rain is observed to slowly expand in height. This movement is accompanied by several small ( 1 arsec) and short (<20 sec) bursts of plasma perpendicular to the field, captured in the Si IV and Mg II lines. The line profiles are broad and asymmetric with long tails above 100 km/s. These microjets are accompanied with strong intensity enhancements along the loop in most of the AIA channels, indicating significant energy release. We interpret these microjets as reconnection outflows, produced by component reconnection as the magnetic structure expands transversely. The originally cold conditions of the rain allows in this case a unique high resolution glance at the reconnection dynamics in low beta plasmas. Title: Observing the Formation of Flare-driven Coronal Rain Authors: Scullion, E.; Rouppe van der Voort, L.; Antolin, P.; Wedemeyer, S.; Vissers, G.; Kontar, E. P.; Gallagher, P. T. Bibcode: 2016ApJ...833..184S Altcode: 2016arXiv161009255S Flare-driven coronal rain can manifest from rapidly cooled plasma condensations near coronal loop tops in thermally unstable postflare arcades. We detect five phases that characterize the postflare decay: heating, evaporation, conductive cooling dominance for ∼120 s, radiative/enthalpy cooling dominance for ∼4700 s, and finally catastrophic cooling occurring within 35-124 s, leading to rain strands with a periodicity of 55-70 s. We find an excellent agreement between the observations and model predictions of the dominant cooling timescales and the onset of catastrophic cooling. At the rain-formation site, we detect comoving, multithermal rain clumps that undergo catastrophic cooling from ∼1 MK to ∼22,000 K. During catastrophic cooling, the plasma cools at a maximum rate of 22,700 K s-1 in multiple loop-top sources. We calculated the density of the extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) plasma from the differential emission measure of the multithermal source employing regularized inversion. Assuming a pressure balance, we estimate the density of the chromospheric component of rain to be 9.21 × 1011 ± 1.76 × 1011 cm-3, which is comparable with quiescent coronal rain densities. With up to eight parallel strands in the EUV loop cross section, we calculate the mass loss rate from the postflare arcade to be as much as 1.98 × 1012 ± 4.95 × 1011 g s-1. Finally, we reveal a close proximity between the model predictions of {10}5.8 K and the observed properties between {10}5.9 and {10}6.2 K, which defines the temperature onset of catastrophic cooling. The close correspondence between the observations and numerical models suggests that indeed acoustic waves (with a sound travel time of 68 s) could play an important role in redistributing energy and sustaining the enthalpy-based radiative cooling. Title: Probing the Physical Connection between Solar Prominences and Coronal Rain Authors: Liu, W.; Antolin, P.; Sun, X.; Vial, J. C.; Guo, L.; Gibson, S. E.; Berger, T. E.; Okamoto, J.; De Pontieu, B. Bibcode: 2016AGUFMSH43C2587L Altcode: Solar prominences and coronal rain are intimately related phenomena, both involving cool material at chromospheric temperatures within the hot corona and both playing important roles as part of the return flow of the chromosphere-corona mass cycle. At the same time, they exhibit distinct morphologies and dynamics not yet well understood. Quiescent prominences consist of numerous long-lasting, filamentary downflow threads, while coronal rain is more transient and falls comparably faster along well-defined curved paths. We report here a novel, hybrid prominence-coronal rain complex in an arcade-fan geometry observed by SDO/AIA and IRIS, which provides new insights to the underlying physics of such contrasting behaviors. We found that the supra-arcade fan region hosts a prominence sheet consisting of meandering threads with broad line widths. As the prominence material descends to the arcade, it turns into coronal rain sliding down coronal loops with line widths 2-3 times narrower. This contrast suggests that distinct local plasma and magnetic conditions determine the fate of the cool material, a scenario supported by our magnetic field extrapolations from SDO/HMI. Specifically, the supra-arcade fan (similar to those in solar flares) is likely situated in a current sheet, where the magnetic field is weak and the plasma-beta could be close to unity, thus favoring turbulent flows like those prominence threads. In contrast, the underlying arcade has a stronger magnetic field and most likely a low-beta environment, such that the material is guided along magnetic field lines to appear as coronal rain. We will discuss the physical implications of these observations beyond the phenomena of prominences and coronal rain. Title: Joint SDO and IRIS Observations of a Novel, Hybrid Prominence-Coronal Rain Complex Authors: Liu, Wei; Antolin, Patrick; Sun, Xudong; Gao, Lijia; Vial, Jean-Claude; Gibson, Sarah; Okamoto, Takenori; Berger, Thomas; Uitenbroek, Han; De Pontieu, Bart Bibcode: 2016usc..confE..99L Altcode: Solar prominences and coronal rain are intimately related phenomena, both involving cool material at chromospheric temperatures within the hot corona and both playing important roles as part of the return flow of the chromosphere-corona mass cycle. At the same time, they exhibit distinct morphologies and dynamics not yet well understood. Quiescent prominences consist of numerous long-lasting, filamentary downflow threads, while coronal rain is more transient and falls comparably faster along well-defined curved paths. We report here a novel, hybrid prominence-coronal rain complex in an arcade-fan geometry observed by SDO/AIA and IRIS, which provides new insights to the underlying physics of such contrasting behaviors. We found that the supra-arcade fan region hosts a prominence sheet consisting of meandering threads with broad line widths. As the prominence material descends to the arcade, it turns into coronal rain sliding down coronal loops with line widths 2-3 times narrower. This contrast suggests that distinct local plasma and magnetic conditions determine the fate of the cool material, a scenario supported by our magnetic field extrapolations from SDO/HMI. Specifically, the supra-arcade fan (similar to those in solar flares; e.g., McKenzie 2013) is likely situated in a current sheet, where the magnetic field is weak and the plasma-beta could be close to unity, thus favoring turbulent flows like those prominence threads. In contrast, the underlying arcade has a stronger magnetic field and most likely a low-beta environment, such that the material is guided along magnetic field lines to appear as coronal rain. We will discuss the physical implications of these observations beyond prominence and coronal rain. Title: Modeling Observed Decay-less Oscillations as Resonantly Enhanced Kelvin-Helmholtz Vortices from Transverse MHD Waves and Their Seismological Application Authors: Antolin, P.; De Moortel, I.; Van Doorsselaere, T.; Yokoyama, T. Bibcode: 2016ApJ...830L..22A Altcode: 2016arXiv160909716A In the highly structured solar corona, resonant absorption is an unavoidable mechanism of energy transfer from global transverse MHD waves to local azimuthal Alfvén waves. Due to its localized nature, direct detection of this mechanism is extremely difficult. Yet, it is the leading theory explaining the observed fast damping of the global transverse waves. However, at odds with this theoretical prediction are recent observations that indicate that in the low-amplitude regime such transverse MHD waves can also appear decay-less, a still unsolved phenomenon. Recent numerical work has shown that Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities (KHI) often accompany transverse MHD waves. In this work, we combine 3D MHD simulations and forward modeling to show that for currently achieved spatial resolution and observed small amplitudes, an apparent decay-less oscillation is obtained. This effect results from the combination of periodic brightenings produced by the KHI and the coherent motion of the KHI vortices amplified by resonant absorption. Such an effect is especially clear in emission lines forming at temperatures that capture the boundary dynamics rather than the core, and reflects the low damping character of the local azimuthal Alfvén waves resonantly coupled to the kink mode. Due to phase mixing, the detected period can vary depending on the emission line, with those sensitive to the boundary having shorter periods than those sensitive to the loop core. This allows us to estimate the density contrast at the boundary. Title: Global Sausage Oscillation of Solar Flare Loops Detected by the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph Authors: Tian, Hui; Young, Peter R.; Reeves, Katharine K.; Wang, Tongjiang; Antolin, Patrick; Chen, Bin; He, Jiansen Bibcode: 2016ApJ...823L..16T Altcode: 2016arXiv160501963T An observation from the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph reveals coherent oscillations in the loops of an M1.6 flare on 2015 March 12. Both the intensity and Doppler shift of Fe xxi 1354.08 Å show clear oscillations with a period of ∼25 s. Remarkably similar oscillations were also detected in the soft X-ray flux recorded by the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES). With an estimated phase speed of ∼2420 km s-1 and a derived electron density of at least 5.4 × 1010 cm-3, the observed short-period oscillation is most likely the global fast sausage mode of a hot flare loop. We find a phase shift of ∼π/2 (1/4 period) between the Doppler shift oscillation and the intensity/GOES oscillations, which is consistent with a recent forward modeling study of the sausage mode. The observed oscillation requires a density contrast between the flare loop and coronal background of a factor ≥42. The estimated phase speed of the global mode provides a lower limit of the Alfvén speed outside the flare loop. We also find an increase of the oscillation period, which might be caused by the separation of the loop footpoints with time. Title: IRIS Observations of a Novel, Hybrid Prominence-Coronal Rain Complex Authors: Liu, Wei; Antolin, Patrick; Sun, Xudong Bibcode: 2016SPD....47.0402L Altcode: Solar prominences and coronal rain are intimately related phenomena, both involving cool material at chromospheric temperatures within the hot corona and both playing important roles as part of the return flow of the chromosphere-corona mass cycle. At the same time, they exhibit distinct morphologies and dynamics not yet well understood. Quiescent prominences consist of numerous long-lasting, filamentary downflow threads, while coronal rain is more transient and falls comparably faster along well-defined curved paths. We report here a novel, hybrid prominence-coronal rain complex in an arcade-fan geometry observed by IRIS and SDO/AIA, which provides new insights to the underlying physics of such contrasting behaviors. We found that the supra-arcade fan region hosts a prominence sheet consisting of meandering threads with broad Mg II k/h line widths. As the prominence material descends to the arcade, it turns into coronal rain sliding down coronal loops with line widths 2-3 times narrower. This contrast suggests that distinct local plasma and magnetic conditions determine the fate of the cool material, a scenario supported by our magnetic field extrapolations from SDO/HMI. Specifically, the supra-arcade fan (similar to those in solar flares; e.g., McKenzie 2013) is likely situated in a current sheet, where the magnetic field is weak and the plasma-beta could be close to unity, thus favoring turbulent flows like those prominence threads. In contrast, the underlying arcade has a stronger magnetic field and most likely a low-beta environment, such that the material is guided along magnetic field lines to appear as coronal rain. We will discuss the implications of these novel results for future observations e.g., with DKIST. Title: Solar Science with the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array—A New View of Our Sun Authors: Wedemeyer, S.; Bastian, T.; Brajša, R.; Hudson, H.; Fleishman, G.; Loukitcheva, M.; Fleck, B.; Kontar, E. P.; De Pontieu, B.; Yagoubov, P.; Tiwari, S. K.; Soler, R.; Black, J. H.; Antolin, P.; Scullion, E.; Gunár, S.; Labrosse, N.; Ludwig, H. -G.; Benz, A. O.; White, S. M.; Hauschildt, P.; Doyle, J. G.; Nakariakov, V. M.; Ayres, T.; Heinzel, P.; Karlicky, M.; Van Doorsselaere, T.; Gary, D.; Alissandrakis, C. E.; Nindos, A.; Solanki, S. K.; Rouppe van der Voort, L.; Shimojo, M.; Kato, Y.; Zaqarashvili, T.; Perez, E.; Selhorst, C. L.; Barta, M. Bibcode: 2016SSRv..200....1W Altcode: 2015SSRv..tmp..118W; 2015arXiv150406887W The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is a new powerful tool for observing the Sun at high spatial, temporal, and spectral resolution. These capabilities can address a broad range of fundamental scientific questions in solar physics. The radiation observed by ALMA originates mostly from the chromosphere—a complex and dynamic region between the photosphere and corona, which plays a crucial role in the transport of energy and matter and, ultimately, the heating of the outer layers of the solar atmosphere. Based on first solar test observations, strategies for regular solar campaigns are currently being developed. State-of-the-art numerical simulations of the solar atmosphere and modeling of instrumental effects can help constrain and optimize future observing modes for ALMA. Here we present a short technical description of ALMA and an overview of past efforts and future possibilities for solar observations at submillimeter and millimeter wavelengths. In addition, selected numerical simulations and observations at other wavelengths demonstrate ALMA's scientific potential for studying the Sun for a large range of science cases. Title: Forward modelling of optically thin coronal plasma with the FoMo tool Authors: Van Doorsselaere, Tom; Antolin, Patrick; Yuan, Ding; Reznikova, Veronika; Magyar, Norbert Bibcode: 2016FrASS...3....4V Altcode: The FoMo code was developed to calculate the EUV emission from optically thin coronal plasmas. The input data for FoMo consists of the coronal density, temperature and velocity on a 3D grid. This is translated to emissivity on the 3D grid, using CHIANTI data. Then, the emissivity is integrated along the line-of-sight to calculate the emergent spectral line that could be observed by a spectrometer. Moreover, the code has been extended to model also the radio emission from plasmas with a population of non-thermal particles. In this case, also optically thick plasmas may be modelled. The radio spectrum is calculated over a large wavelength range, allowing for the comparison with data from a wide range of radio telescopes. Title: ALMA Observations of the Sun in Cycle 4 and Beyond Authors: Wedemeyer, S.; Fleck, B.; Battaglia, M.; Labrosse, N.; Fleishman, G.; Hudson, H.; Antolin, P.; Alissandrakis, C.; Ayres, T.; Ballester, J.; Bastian, T.; Black, J.; Benz, A.; Brajsa, R.; Carlsson, M.; Costa, J.; DePontieu, B.; Doyle, G.; Gimenez de Castro, G.; Gunár, S.; Harper, G.; Jafarzadeh, S.; Loukitcheva, M.; Nakariakov, V.; Oliver, R.; Schmieder, B.; Selhorst, C.; Shimojo, M.; Simões, P.; Soler, R.; Temmer, M.; Tiwari, S.; Van Doorsselaere, T.; Veronig, A.; White, S.; Yagoubov, P.; Zaqarashvili, T. Bibcode: 2016arXiv160100587W Altcode: This document was created by the Solar Simulations for the Atacama Large Millimeter Observatory Network (SSALMON) in preparation of the first regular observations of the Sun with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), which are anticipated to start in ALMA Cycle 4 in October 2016. The science cases presented here demonstrate that a large number of scientifically highly interesting observations could be made already with the still limited solar observing modes foreseen for Cycle 4 and that ALMA has the potential to make important contributions to answering long-standing scientific questions in solar physics. With the proposal deadline for ALMA Cycle 4 in April 2016 and the Commissioning and Science Verification campaign in December 2015 in sight, several of the SSALMON Expert Teams composed strategic documents in which they outlined potential solar observations that could be feasible given the anticipated technical capabilities in Cycle 4. These documents have been combined and supplemented with an analysis, resulting in recommendations for solar observing with ALMA in Cycle 4. In addition, the detailed science cases also demonstrate the scientific priorities of the solar physics community and which capabilities are wanted for the next observing cycles. The work on this White Paper effort was coordinated in close cooperation with the two international solar ALMA development studies led by T. Bastian (NRAO, USA) and R. Brajsa, (ESO). This document will be further updated until the beginning of Cycle 4 in October 2016. In particular, we plan to adjust the technical capabilities of the solar observing modes once finally decided and to further demonstrate the feasibility and scientific potential of the included science cases by means of numerical simulations of the solar atmosphere and corresponding simulated ALMA observations. Title: SSALMON - The Solar Simulations for the Atacama Large Millimeter Observatory Network Authors: Wedemeyer, S.; Bastian, T.; Brajša, R.; Barta, M.; Hudson, H.; Fleishman, G.; Loukitcheva, M.; Fleck, B.; Kontar, E.; De Pontieu, B.; Tiwari, S.; Kato, Y.; Soler, R.; Yagoubov, P.; Black, J. H.; Antolin, P.; Gunár, S.; Labrosse, N.; Benz, A. O.; Nindos, A.; Steffen, M.; Scullion, E.; Doyle, J. G.; Zaqarashvili, T.; Hanslmeier, A.; Nakariakov, V. M.; Heinzel, P.; Ayres, T.; Karlicky, M. Bibcode: 2015AdSpR..56.2679W Altcode: 2015arXiv150205601W The Solar Simulations for the Atacama Large Millimeter Observatory Network (SSALMON) was initiated in 2014 in connection with two ALMA development studies. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is a powerful new tool, which can also observe the Sun at high spatial, temporal, and spectral resolution. The international SSALMONetwork aims at co-ordinating the further development of solar observing modes for ALMA and at promoting scientific opportunities for solar physics with particular focus on numerical simulations, which can provide important constraints for the observing modes and can aid the interpretation of future observations. The radiation detected by ALMA originates mostly in the solar chromosphere - a complex and dynamic layer between the photosphere and corona, which plays an important role in the transport of energy and matter and the heating of the outer layers of the solar atmosphere. Potential targets include active regions, prominences, quiet Sun regions, flares. Here, we give a brief overview over the network and potential science cases for future solar observations with ALMA. Title: Combining IRIS/Hinode Observations and Modeling: a Pathfinder for Coronal Heating Authors: Antolin, P.; Okamoto, J.; De Pontieu, B. Bibcode: 2015AGUFMSH13C2451A Altcode: The combination of imaging and spectroscopic instruments with multiple temperature diagnostics at high spatial, temporal and spectral resolution can allow to recover the 3D plasma flow and thermodynamic evolution associated with specific coronal heating mechanisms. Although very hard considering the complexity of the solar atmosphere, this approach is becoming possible now through combination of instruments such as IRIS and Hinode, and with proper guiding from advanced numerical simulations and forward modeling. In this talk I will review recent examples of this approach, focusing on a particular, recently published, case study, that serves as a pathfinder in the search for the dominant coronal heating mechanism. In this case, resonant absorption, a long hypothesised wave-related energy conversion mechanism is spotted in action for the first time, and is characterised by a peculiar 3D motion of the plasma. With the help of 3D MHD numerical simulations and forward modeling the observational signatures of resonant absorption are characterised, matching very well the observational results. The process through which this mechanism can lead to observed significant heating in the solar corona is further identified: the resonant flow becomes turbulent following dynamic instabilities and heats the plasma. I will show how this resonance + instability process is expected in different scenarios of the solar atmosphere (the corona, prominences and spicules) and can potentially explain several observed features that remain so far unexplained. Title: Resonant Absorption of Transverse Oscillations and Associated Heating in a Solar Prominence. II. Numerical Aspects Authors: Antolin, P.; Okamoto, T. J.; De Pontieu, B.; Uitenbroek, H.; Van Doorsselaere, T.; Yokoyama, T. Bibcode: 2015ApJ...809...72A Altcode: 2015arXiv150609108A Transverse magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves are ubiquitous in the solar atmosphere and may be responsible for generating the Sun’s million-degree outer atmosphere. However, direct evidence of the dissipation process and heating from these waves remains elusive. Through advanced numerical simulations combined with appropriate forward modeling of a prominence flux tube, we provide the observational signatures of transverse MHD waves in prominence plasmas. We show that these signatures are characterized by a thread-like substructure, strong transverse dynamical coherence, an out-of-phase difference between plane-of-the-sky motions and line-of-sight velocities, and enhanced line broadening and heating around most of the flux tube. A complex combination between resonant absorption and Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities (KHIs) takes place in which the KHI extracts the energy from the resonant layer and dissipates it through vortices and current sheets, which rapidly degenerate into turbulence. An inward enlargement of the boundary is produced in which the turbulent flows conserve the characteristic dynamics from the resonance, therefore guaranteeing detectability of the resonance imprints. We show that the features described in the accompanying paper through coordinated Hinode and Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph observations match the numerical results well. Title: Resonant Absorption of Transverse Oscillations and Associated Heating in a Solar Prominence. I. Observational Aspects Authors: Okamoto, Takenori J.; Antolin, Patrick; De Pontieu, Bart; Uitenbroek, Han; Van Doorsselaere, Tom; Yokoyama, Takaaki Bibcode: 2015ApJ...809...71O Altcode: 2015arXiv150608965O Transverse magnetohydrodynamic waves have been shown to be ubiquitous in the solar atmosphere and can, in principle, carry sufficient energy to generate and maintain the Sun’s million-degree outer atmosphere or corona. However, direct evidence of the dissipation process of these waves and subsequent heating has not yet been directly observed. Here we report on high spatial, temporal, and spectral resolution observations of a solar prominence that show a compelling signature of so-called resonant absorption, a long hypothesized mechanism to efficiently convert and dissipate transverse wave energy into heat. Aside from coherence in the transverse direction, our observations show telltale phase differences around 180° between transverse motions in the plane-of-sky and line-of-sight velocities of the oscillating fine structures or threads, and also suggest significant heating from chromospheric to higher temperatures. Comparison with advanced numerical simulations support a scenario in which transverse oscillations trigger a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI) at the boundaries of oscillating threads via resonant absorption. This instability leads to numerous thin current sheets in which wave energy is dissipated and plasma is heated. Our results provide direct evidence for wave-related heating in action, one of the candidate coronal heating mechanisms. Title: Forward Modeling of Standing Slow Modes in Flaring Coronal Loops Authors: Yuan, D.; Van Doorsselaere, T.; Banerjee, D.; Antolin, P. Bibcode: 2015ApJ...807...98Y Altcode: 2015arXiv150407475Y Standing slow-mode waves in hot flaring loops are exclusively observed in spectrometers and are used to diagnose the magnetic field strength and temperature of the loop structure. Owing to the lack of spatial information, the longitudinal mode cannot be effectively identified. In this study, we simulate standing slow-mode waves in flaring loops and compare the synthesized line emission properties with Solar Ultraviolet Measurements of Emitted Radiation spectrographic and Solar Dynamics Observatory/Atmospheric Imaging Assembly imaging observations. We find that the emission intensity and line width oscillations are a quarter period out of phase with Doppler shift velocity in both time and spatial domain, which can be used to identify a standing slow-mode wave from spectroscopic observations. However, the longitudinal overtones could only be measured with the assistance of imagers. We find emission intensity asymmetry in the positive and negative modulations this is because the contribution function pertaining to the atomic emission process responds differently to positive and negative temperature variations. One may detect half periodicity close to the loop apex, where emission intensity modulation is relatively small. The line-of-sight projection affects the observation of Doppler shift significantly. A more accurate estimate of the amplitude of velocity perturbation is obtained by de-projecting the Doppler shift by a factor of 1-2θ/π rather than the traditionally used {cos}θ . If a loop is heated to the hotter wing, the intensity modulation could be overwhelmed by background emission, while the Doppler shift velocity could still be detected to a certain extent. Title: The Multithermal and Multi-stranded Nature of Coronal Rain Authors: Antolin, P.; Vissers, G.; Pereira, T. M. D.; Rouppe van der Voort, L.; Scullion, E. Bibcode: 2015ApJ...806...81A Altcode: 2015arXiv150404418A We analyze coordinated observations of coronal rain in loops, spanning chromospheric, transition region (TR), and coronal temperatures with sub-arcsecond spatial resolution. Coronal rain is found to be a highly multithermal phenomenon with a high degree of co-spatiality in the multi-wavelength emission. EUV darkening and quasi-periodic intensity variations are found to be strongly correlated with coronal rain showers. Progressive cooling of coronal rain is observed, leading to a height dependence of the emission. A fast-slow two-step catastrophic cooling progression is found, which may reflect the transition to optically thick plasma states. The intermittent and clumpy appearance of coronal rain at coronal heights becomes more continuous and persistent at chromospheric heights just before impact, mainly due to a funnel effect from the observed expansion of the magnetic field. Strong density inhomogeneities of 0\buildrel{\prime\prime}\over{.} 2-0\buildrel{\prime\prime}\over{.} 5 are found, in which a transition from temperatures of 105 to 104 K occurs. The 0\buildrel{\prime\prime}\over{.} 2-0\buildrel{\prime\prime}\over{.} 8 width of the distribution of coronal rain is found to be independent of temperature. The sharp increase in the number of clumps at the coolest temperatures, especially at higher resolution, suggests that the bulk distribution of the rain remains undetected. Rain clumps appear organized in strands in both chromospheric and TR temperatures. We further find structure reminiscent of the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) thermal mode (also known as entropy mode), thereby suggesting an important role of thermal instability in shaping the basic loop substructure. Rain core densities are estimated to vary between 2 × 1010 and 2.5× {{10}11} cm-3, leading to significant downward mass fluxes per loop of 1-5 × 109 g s-1, thus suggesting a major role in the chromosphere-corona mass cycle. Title: Hα and EUV Observations of a Partial CME Authors: Christian, Damian J.; Jess, David B.; Antolin, Patrick; Mathioudakis, Mihalis Bibcode: 2015ApJ...804..147C Altcode: 2015arXiv150303982C We have obtained Hα high spatial and time resolution observations of the upper solar chromosphere and supplemented these with multi-wavelength observations from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and the Hinode Extreme-ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer. The Hα observations were conducted on 2012 February 11 with the Hydrogen-Alpha Rapid Dynamics Camera instrument at the National Solar Observatory’s Dunn Solar Telescope. Our Hα observations found large downflows of chromospheric material returning from coronal heights following a failed prominence eruption. We have detected several large condensations (“blobs”) returning to the solar surface at velocities of ≈200 km s-1 in both Hα and several SDO Atmospheric Imaging Assembly band passes. The average derived size of these “blobs” in Hα is 500 by 3000 km2 in the directions perpendicular and parallel to the direction of travel, respectively. A comparison of our “blob” widths to those found from coronal rain, indicate that there are additional, smaller, unresolved “blobs” in agreement with previous studies and recent numerical simulations. Our observed velocities and decelerations of the “blobs” in both Hα and SDO bands are less than those expected for gravitational free-fall and imply additional magnetic or gas pressure impeding the flow. We derived a kinetic energy of ≈2 orders of magnitude lower for the main eruption than a typical coronal mass ejection, which may explain its partial nature. Title: First High-resolution Spectroscopic Observations of an Erupting Prominence Within a Coronal Mass Ejection by the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) Authors: Liu, Wei; De Pontieu, Bart; Vial, Jean-Claude; Title, Alan M.; Carlsson, Mats; Uitenbroek, Han; Okamoto, Takenori J.; Berger, Thomas E.; Antolin, Patrick Bibcode: 2015ApJ...803...85L Altcode: 2015arXiv150204738L Spectroscopic observations of prominence eruptions associated with coronal mass ejections (CMEs), although relatively rare, can provide valuable plasma and three-dimensional geometry diagnostics. We report the first observations by the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph mission of a spectacular fast CME/prominence eruption associated with an equivalent X1.6 flare on 2014 May 9. The maximum plane-of-sky and Doppler velocities of the eruption are 1200 and 460 km s-1, respectively. There are two eruption components separated by ∼200 km s-1 in Doppler velocity: a primary, bright component and a secondary, faint component, suggesting a hollow, rather than solid, cone-shaped distribution of material. The eruption involves a left-handed helical structure undergoing counterclockwise (viewed top-down) unwinding motion. There is a temporal evolution from upward eruption to downward fallback with less-than-free-fall speeds and decreasing nonthermal line widths. We find a wide range of Mg ii k/h line intensity ratios (less than ∼2 expected for optically-thin thermal emission): the lowest ever reported median value of 1.17 found in the fallback material, a comparably high value of 1.63 in nearby coronal rain, and intermediate values of 1.53 and 1.41 in the two eruption components. The fallback material exhibits a strong (\gt 5σ ) linear correlation between the k/h ratio and the Doppler velocity as well as the line intensity. We demonstrate that Doppler dimming of scattered chromospheric emission by the erupted material can potentially explain such characteristics. Title: Observational Signatures of Waves and Flows in the Solar Corona Authors: De Moortel, I.; Antolin, P.; Van Doorsselaere, T. Bibcode: 2015SoPh..290..399D Altcode: 2014SoPh..tmp..133D; 2015arXiv151001030D Propagating perturbations have been observed in extended coronal loop structures for a number of years, but the interpretation in terms of slow (propagating) magneto-acoustic waves and/or as quasi-periodic upflows remains unresolved. We used forward-modelling to construct observational signatures associated with a simple slow magneto-acoustic wave or periodic flow model. Observational signatures were computed for the 171 Å Fe IX and the 193 Å Fe XII spectral lines. Although there are many differences between the flow and wave models, we did not find any clear, robust observational characteristics that can be used in isolation (i.e. that do not rely on a comparison between the models). For the waves model, a relatively rapid change of the average line widths as a function of (shallow) line-of-sight angles was found, whereas the ratio of the line width amplitudes to the Doppler velocity amplitudes is relatively high for the flow model. The most robust observational signature found is that the ratio of the mean to the amplitudes of the Doppler velocity is always higher than one for the flow model. This ratio is substantially higher for flows than for waves, and for the flows model used in the study is exactly the same in the 171 Å Fe IX and the 193 Å Fe XII spectral lines. However, these potential observational signatures need to be treated cautiously because they are likely to be model-dependent. Title: Observational Evidence of Resonant Absorption in Oscillating Prominence Authors: Okamoto, J.; Antolin, P.; De Pontieu, B.; Uitenbroek, H.; Van Doorsselaere, T.; Yokoyama, T. Bibcode: 2014AGUFMSH12A..05O Altcode: Coronal heating and the acceleration of the solar wind are unsolved problems in solar physics. The propagation of Alfven waves along magnetic field lines is one of the candidate mechanisms for carrying energy to large distances from the surface and heat the coronal plasma. However, the dissipation process is still unclear in observational aspects.The new NASA's solar physics satellite IRIS (Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph) provides spectral information of plasma in the chromosphere and transition region with high-spatial and high-temporal resolution. Hence, we performed observations of a limb prominence to find evidence and clues of dissipation in collaboration with Hinode/SOT and SDO/AIA.In our observations, we found a clear evidence of resonant absorption that takes place on the surface of the oscillating prominence flux tubes. This mechanism facilitates the onset of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, which deforms the thin tube's boundaries and generates thin current sheets and turbulence, leading to dissipation of the wave energy into heat. In this talk, we will show the observed phenomena and discuss the dissipation mechanism compared with numerical simulations of an oscillating prominence. Title: Unresolved Fine-scale Structure in Solar Coronal Loop-tops Authors: Scullion, E.; Rouppe van der Voort, L.; Wedemeyer, S.; Antolin, P. Bibcode: 2014ApJ...797...36S Altcode: 2014arXiv1409.1920S New and advanced space-based observing facilities continue to lower the resolution limit and detect solar coronal loops in greater detail. We continue to discover even finer substructures within coronal loop cross-sections, in order to understand the nature of the solar corona. Here, we push this lower limit further to search for the finest coronal loop substructures, through taking advantage of the resolving power of the Swedish 1 m Solar Telescope/CRisp Imaging Spectro-Polarimeter (CRISP), together with co-observations from the Solar Dynamics Observatory/Atmospheric Image Assembly (AIA). High-resolution imaging of the chromospheric Hα 656.28 nm spectral line core and wings can, under certain circumstances, allow one to deduce the topology of the local magnetic environment of the solar atmosphere where its observed. Here, we study post-flare coronal loops, which become filled with evaporated chromosphere that rapidly condenses into chromospheric clumps of plasma (detectable in Hα) known as a coronal rain, to investigate their fine-scale structure. We identify, through analysis of three data sets, large-scale catastrophic cooling in coronal loop-tops and the existence of multi-thermal, multi-stranded substructures. Many cool strands even extend fully intact from loop-top to footpoint. We discover that coronal loop fine-scale strands can appear bunched with as many as eight parallel strands within an AIA coronal loop cross-section. The strand number density versus cross-sectional width distribution, as detected by CRISP within AIA-defined coronal loops, most likely peaks at well below 100 km, and currently, 69% of the substructure strands are statistically unresolved in AIA coronal loops. Title: First High-resolution Spectroscopic Observations by IRIS of a Fast, Helical Prominence Eruption Associated with a Coronal Mass Ejection Authors: Liu, W.; De Pontieu, B.; Okamoto, T. J.; Vial, J. C.; Title, A. M.; Antolin, P.; Berger, T. E.; Uitenbroek, H. Bibcode: 2014AGUFMSH11D..04L Altcode: High-resolution spectroscopic observations of prominence eruptions and associated coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are rare but can provide valuable plasma and energy diagnostics. New opportunities have recently become available with the advent of the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) mission equipped with high resolution of 0.33-0.4 arcsec in space and 1 km/s in velocity, together with the Hinode Solar Optical Telescope of 0.2 arcsec spatial resolution. We report the first result of joint IRIS-Hinode observations of a spectacular prominence eruption occurring on 2014-May-09. IRIS detected a maximum redshift of 450 km/s, which, combined with the plane-of-sky speed of 800 km/s, gives a large velocity vector of 920 km/s at 30 degrees from the sky plane. This direction agrees with the source location at 30 degrees behind the limb observed by STEREO-A and indicates a nearly vertical ejection. We found two branches of redshifts separated by 200 km/s appearing in all strong lines at chromospheric to transition-region temperatures, including Mg II k/h, C II, and Si IV, suggesting a hollow, rather than solid, cone in the velocity space of the ejected material. Opposite blue- and redshifts on the two sides of the prominence exhibit corkscrew variations both in space and time, suggestive of unwinding rotations of a left-handed helical flux rope. Some erupted material returns as nearly streamline flows, exhibiting distinctly narrow line widths (~10 km/s), about 50% of those of the nearby coronal rain at the apexes of coronal loops, where the rain material is initially formed out of cooling condensation. We estimate the mass and kinetic energy of the ejected and returning material and compare them with those of the associated CME. We will discuss the implications of these observations for CME initiation mechanisms. Title: Simulating the in Situ Condensation Process of Solar Prominences Authors: Xia, C.; Keppens, R.; Antolin, P.; Porth, O. Bibcode: 2014ApJ...792L..38X Altcode: 2014arXiv1408.4249X Prominences in the solar corona are a hundredfold cooler and denser than their surroundings, with a total mass of 1013 up to 1015 g. Here, we report on the first comprehensive simulations of three-dimensional, thermally and gravitationally stratified magnetic flux ropes where in situ condensation to a prominence occurs due to radiative losses. After a gradual thermodynamic adjustment, we witness a phase where runaway cooling occurs while counter-streaming shearing flows drain off mass along helical field lines. After this drainage, a prominence-like condensation resides in concave upward field regions, and this prominence retains its overall characteristics for more than two hours. While condensing, the prominence establishes a prominence-corona transition region where magnetic field-aligned thermal conduction is operative during the runaway cooling. The prominence structure represents a force-balanced state in a helical flux rope. The simulated condensation demonstrates a right-bearing barb, as a remnant of the drainage. Synthetic images at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths follow the onset of the condensation, and confirm the appearance of horns and a three-part structure for the stable prominence state, as often seen in erupting prominences. This naturally explains recent Solar Dynamics Observatory views with the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on prominences in coronal cavities demonstrating horns. Title: Detection of Supersonic Downflows and Associated Heating Events in the Transition Region above Sunspots Authors: Kleint, L.; Antolin, P.; Tian, H.; Judge, P.; Testa, P.; De Pontieu, B.; Martínez-Sykora, J.; Reeves, K. K.; Wuelser, J. P.; McKillop, S.; Saar, S.; Carlsson, M.; Boerner, P.; Hurlburt, N.; Lemen, J.; Tarbell, T. D.; Title, A.; Golub, L.; Hansteen, V.; Jaeggli, S.; Kankelborg, C. Bibcode: 2014ApJ...789L..42K Altcode: 2014arXiv1406.6816K Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph data allow us to study the solar transition region (TR) with an unprecedented spatial resolution of 0.''33. On 2013 August 30, we observed bursts of high Doppler shifts suggesting strong supersonic downflows of up to 200 km s-1 and weaker, slightly slower upflows in the spectral lines Mg II h and k, C II 1336, Si IV 1394 Å, and 1403 Å, that are correlated with brightenings in the slitjaw images (SJIs). The bursty behavior lasts throughout the 2 hr observation, with average burst durations of about 20 s. The locations of these short-lived events appear to be the umbral and penumbral footpoints of EUV loops. Fast apparent downflows are observed along these loops in the SJIs and in the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly, suggesting that the loops are thermally unstable. We interpret the observations as cool material falling from coronal heights, and especially coronal rain produced along the thermally unstable loops, which leads to an increase of intensity at the loop footpoints, probably indicating an increase of density and temperature in the TR. The rain speeds are on the higher end of previously reported speeds for this phenomenon, and possibly higher than the free-fall velocity along the loops. On other observing days, similar bright dots are sometimes aligned into ribbons, resembling small flare ribbons. These observations provide a first insight into small-scale heating events in sunspots in the TR. Title: Fine Strand-like Structure in the Solar Corona from Magnetohydrodynamic Transverse Oscillations Authors: Antolin, P.; Yokoyama, T.; Van Doorsselaere, T. Bibcode: 2014ApJ...787L..22A Altcode: 2014arXiv1405.0076A Current analytical and numerical modeling suggest the existence of ubiquitous thin current sheets in the corona that could explain the observed heating requirements. On the other hand, new high resolution observations of the corona indicate that its magnetic field may tend to organize itself in fine strand-like structures of few hundred kilometers widths. The link between small structure in models and the observed widths of strand-like structure several orders of magnitude larger is still not clear. A popular theoretical scenario is the nanoflare model, in which each strand is the product of an ensemble of heating events. Here, we suggest an alternative mechanism for strand generation. Through forward modeling of three-dimensional MHD simulations we show that small amplitude transverse MHD waves can lead in a few periods time to strand-like structure in loops in EUV intensity images. Our model is based on previous numerical work showing that transverse MHD oscillations can lead to Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities that deform the cross-sectional area of loops. While previous work has focused on large amplitude oscillations, here we show that the instability can occur even for low wave amplitudes for long and thin loops, matching those presently observed in the corona. We show that the vortices generated from the instability are velocity sheared regions with enhanced emissivity hosting current sheets. Strands result as a complex combination of the vortices and the line-of-sight angle, last for timescales of a period, and can be observed for spatial resolutions of a tenth of loop radius. Title: Evidence of Magnetic Reconnection Involving Partially Ionized Coronal Rain near Null Points Observed by SDO/AIA and IRIS Authors: Liu, Wei; Antolin, Patrick; Sun, Xudong; Berger, Thomas E. Bibcode: 2014shin.confE..50L Altcode: Coronal rain is cool, partially ionized material formed in the hot, fully ionized corona. We report a newly discovered class of coronal rain formed near cusp-shaped portions of coronal loops, indicative of topological null points. We present evidence of cross-field flows associated with magnetic reconnection near such null points from SDO/AIA and IRIS observations, investigate the responsible magnetic environment, and infer clues to where and when catastrophic cooling take place to produce coronal rain. We also discuss the implications of such a cooling process for the enigmatic coronal heating mechanisms (e.g., Antolin et al. 2010) and compare transient coronal rain and persistent prominence downflows. Title: IRIS Observations of Coronal Rain and Prominences: Return Flows of the Chromosphere-Corona Mass Cycle Authors: Liu, Wei; Berger, Thomas; Antolin, Patrick; Schrijver, Karel Bibcode: 2014AAS...22431303L Altcode: It has recently been recognized that a mass cycle (e.g., Berger et al. 2011; McIntosh et al. 2012) between the hot, tenuous solar corona and the cool, dense chromosphere underneath it plays an important role in the mass budget and dynamic evolution of the solar atmosphere. Although the corona ultimately loses mass through the solar wind and coronal mass ejections, a fraction of its mass returns to the chromosphere in coronal rain, downflows of prominences, and other as-yet unidentified processes. We present here analysis of joint observations of IRIS, SDO/AIA, and Hinode/SOT of such phenomena. By utilizing the wide temperature coverage (logT: 4 - 7) provided by these instruments combined, we track the coronal cooling sequence (e.g., Schrijver 2001; Liu et al. 2012; Berger et al. 2012) leading to the formation of such material at transition region or chromospheric temperatures (logT: 4 - 5) in the million-degree corona. We compare the cooling times with those expected from the radiative cooling instability. We also measure the kinematics and densities of such downflows and infer their mass fluxes, which are compared to the upward mass fluxes into the corona, e.g., those associated with spicules and flux emergence. Special attention is paid to coronal rain formed near cusp-shaped portions of coronal loops, funnel-shaped prominences at dips of coronal loops, and their respective magnetic environments. With the information about where and when such catastrophic cooling events take place, we discuss the implications for the enigmatic coronal heating mechanisms (e.g., Antolin et al. 2010). Title: Forward Modeling of Gyrosynchrotron Intensity Perturbations by Sausage Modes Authors: Reznikova, V. E.; Antolin, P.; Van Doorsselaere, T. Bibcode: 2014ApJ...785...86R Altcode: To determine the observable radio signatures of the fast sausage standing wave, we examine gyrosynchrotron (GS) emission modulation using a linear three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic model of a plasma cylinder. Effects of the line-of-sight angle and instrumental resolution on perturbations of the GS intensity are analyzed for two models: a base model with strong Razin suppression and a low-density model in which the Razin effect was unimportant. Our finding contradicts previous predictions made with simpler models: an in-phase variation of intensity between low (f < f peak) and high (f > f peak) frequencies is found for the low-density model and an anti-phase variation for the base model in the case of a viewing angle of 45°. The spatially inhomogeneous character of the oscillating emission source and the spatial resolution of the model are found to have a significant effect on the resulting intensity. Title: Prominence Formation and Destruction Authors: Xia, Chun; Antolin, Patrick; Keppens, Rony Bibcode: 2014IAUS..300..468X Altcode: In earlier work, we demonstrated the in-situ formation of a quiescent prominence in a sheared magnetic arcade by chromospheric evaporation and thermal instability in a multi-dimensional MHD model. Here, we improve our setup and reproduce the formation of a curtain-like prominence from first principles, while showing the coexistence of the growing, large-scale prominence with short-lived dynamic coronal rain in overlying loops. When the localized heating is gradually switched off, the central prominence expands laterally beyond the range of its self-created magnetic dips and falls down along the arched loops. The dipped loops recover their initially arched shape and the prominence plasma drains to the chromosphere completely. Title: Coronal rain observed with IRIS Authors: Antolin, Patrick; Katsukawa, Yukio; De Pontieu, Bart; Kleint, Lucia; Pereira, Tiago Bibcode: 2014cosp...40E.105A Altcode: New IRIS observations in upper chromospheric and TR lines show abundance of coronal rain in active regions. The wide range of spectral lines in which it is observed together with co-observations in cool chromospheric lines with SOT and SST show clearly that coronal rain has a broad multi-thermal character. This picture agrees well with the thermal instability scenario in which the plasma cools down catastrophically from coronal temperatures. A statistical analysis of the line widths in the rain provides estimates of the non-thermal line broadening and temperature. Mainly, we find Gaussian-like distributions of non-thermal line broadening between 0 and 17 km/s with a peak at 7 km/s and a small upper tail spanning up to 25 km/s. We also report on short-lived heating events in umbrae and penumbrae at the end of thermally unstable coronal loops. Bursts of high redshifts up to 200 km/s in TR lines are found, accompanied by milder blue shifts. The bright dots sometimes display coherent structure into a "string of pearls" with striking similarity to flare ribbons, suggesting a strong heating correlation between the loops. We discuss these results within the coronal rain scenario. Title: Simulations of gyrosynchrotron microwave emission from an oscillating magnetic loop Authors: Kuznetsov, Alexey; Reznikova, Veronika; Van Doorsselaere, Tom; Antolin, Patrick Bibcode: 2014cosp...40E1717K Altcode: Radio observations of solar flares often reveal various periodic or quasi-periodic oscillations. Most likely, these oscillations are caused by MHD oscillations of flaring loops which modulate the radio emission via variations of the magnetic field and electron concentration. We perform numerical simulations of gyrosynchrotron radiation from a toroidal-shaped magnetic loop containing sausage-mode MHD oscillations. Different parameters of the loop and MHD oscillations and different loop orientations are considered. The simulation results are compared with the observations of the Nobeyama Radioheliograph. Title: Forward modeling of gyrosynchrotron emission perturbations by sausage mode Authors: Reznikova, Veronika; Van Doorsselaere, Tom; Antolin, Patrick Bibcode: 2014cosp...40E2741R Altcode: The modulation of the GS emission by fast sausage MHD oscillations was modeled for typical flaring parameters. For the first time a 3D model was adapted for this purpose and variations of the angle between the magnetic field vector and the line-of-sight have been taken into account. The variation of the thermodynamic quantities are found by linearizing the perturbed ideal MHD equations about the magnetostatic equilibrium. Effects of line-of-sight angle and instrumental reso- lution on perturbations of gyrosynchrotron intensity are analyzed for two models: the base model with the strong Razin suppression and the low density model in which the Razin effect was inessential at all examined frequencies. Results obtained for phase relations between low (f < fpeak) and high (f > fpeak) frequency emission oscillation contradict to previous predictions made with models without spatial resolution and assuming inhomogeneous emitting source. Title: Fine strand-like structure in the corona from MHD transverse oscillations Authors: Antolin, Patrick; Yokoyama, Takaaki; Van Doorsselaere, Tom Bibcode: 2014cosp...40E.104A Altcode: Current analytical and numerical modelling suggest the existence of ubiquitous thin current sheets in the corona that could explain the observed line broadening and heating requirements. On the other hand, new high resolution observations of the corona indicate that its magnetic field may tend to organise itself in fine strand-like structures of a few hundred kilometres widths. The link between small structure in models and the observed widths of strand-like structure several orders of magnitude larger is still not clear. A popular theoretical scenario is the nanoflare model, in which each strand is the product of an ensemble of heating events. Here, we suggest an alternative mechanism for strand generation. Through forward modelling of 3D MHD simulations we show that if a loop has initially a monolithic structure, even a small amplitude transverse MHD wave can lead in a few periods time to strand-like structure in EUV intensity images. Our model is based on previous numerical work showing that transverse MHD oscillations can lead to Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities that deform the cross-sectional area of loops. While previous work has focused on large amplitude oscillations, here we show that the instability can occur even for low wave amplitudes, matching those presently observed in the corona. Through forward modelling we show that the roll-ups generated from the instability are velocity sheared regions with enhanced emissivity and line broadening hosting current sheets. Strand-like structure results as a complex combination of the roll-ups and the line-of-sight angle, can last over relatively long timescales and can be observed for spatial resolutions discerning a tenth of a loop radius. Title: Are Giant Tornadoes the Legs of Solar Prominences? Authors: Wedemeyer, Sven; Scullion, Eamon; Rouppe van der Voort, Luc; Bosnjak, Antonija; Antolin, Patrick Bibcode: 2013ApJ...774..123W Altcode: 2013arXiv1306.2661W Observations in the 171 Å channel of the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly of the space-borne Solar Dynamics Observatory show tornado-like features in the atmosphere of the Sun. These giant tornadoes appear as dark, elongated, and apparently rotating structures in front of a brighter background. This phenomenon is thought to be produced by rotating magnetic field structures that extend throughout the atmosphere. We characterize giant tornadoes through a statistical analysis of properties such as spatial distribution, lifetimes, and sizes. A total number of 201 giant tornadoes are detected in a period of 25 days, suggesting that, on average, about 30 events are present across the whole Sun at a time close to solar maximum. Most tornadoes appear in groups and seem to form the legs of prominences, thus serving as plasma sources/sinks. Additional Hα observations with the Swedish 1 m Solar Telescope imply that giant tornadoes rotate as a structure, although they clearly exhibit a thread-like structure. We observe tornado groups that grow prior to the eruption of the connected prominence. The rotation of the tornadoes may progressively twist the magnetic structure of the prominence until it becomes unstable and erupts. Finally, we investigate the potential relation of giant tornadoes to other phenomena, which may also be produced by rotating magnetic field structures. A comparison to cyclones, magnetic tornadoes, and spicules implies that such events are more abundant and short-lived the smaller they are. This comparison might help to construct a power law for the effective atmospheric heating contribution as a function of spatial scale. Title: Line-of-sight geometrical and instrumental resolution effects on intensity perturbations by sausage modes Authors: Antolin, P.; Van Doorsselaere, T. Bibcode: 2013A&A...555A..74A Altcode: 2013arXiv1303.6147A Context. Diagnostics of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves in the solar atmosphere is a topic that often encounters interpretation problems, partly because of the high complexity of the solar atmospheric medium. Forward modelling can significantly guide interpretation, bridging the gap between numerical simulations and observations, and increasing the reliability of mode identification for applying MHD seismology.
Aims: We determine the characteristics of the fast MHD sausage mode in the corona on the modulation of observable quantities, such as line intensity and spectral line broadening. Effects of the line-of-sight angle and of spatial, temporal, and spectral resolutions are considered.
Methods: We take a cylindrical tube that simulates a loop in a low-β coronal environment with an optically thin background and let it oscillate with the fast sausage mode. A parametric study is performed.
Results: Longitudinal structuring of the intensity modulation is obtained and set by the nodal structure of the radial velocity. The modulation is strongly dependent on the contribution function of the spectral line. Under the assumption of equilibrium ionisation, the intensity variation can be very low (≲4% for Fe ix 171) or significant (35% for Fe xii 193). Most of this variation disappears when considering the radiative relaxation times of the ions, due to the fast timescales of the sausage mode in the corona. Regardless of the ionisation state of the plasma, the variation in spectral line broadening can be significant, even for low intensity modulation. The nature of this broadening is not thermal but is mostly turbulent. This places spectrometers in clear advantage over imaging instruments for the detection of the sausage mode. The modulation of all quantities can considerably decrease with the line-of-sight angle with respect to the perpendicular to the tube axis. The spatial and temporal resolution are the main factors affecting modulation, erasing longitudinal structuring when these are on the order of the mode's wavelength or the mode's period, placing high constraints on instrumentation. Significant variability in all quantities can still be obtained when viewing at an angle of up to 30°, with pixel size resolutions up to one-third of the mode's wavelength, or temporal resolution of one fifth of the mode's period. Modulation is only weakly dependent on spectral resolution due to the mode's inherent symmetry. Title: Statistical seismology of transverse waves in the solar corona Authors: Verwichte, E.; Van Doorsselaere, T.; White, R. S.; Antolin, P. Bibcode: 2013A&A...552A.138V Altcode: Context. Observations show that transverse oscillations commonly occur in solar coronal loops. The rapid damping of these waves has been attributed to resonant absorption. The oscillation characteristics carries information of the structuring of the corona. However, self-consistent seismological methods that extract information from individual oscillations are limited because there are fewer observables than unknown parameters in the model, and the problem is underdetermined. Furthermore, it has been shown that one-to-one comparisons of the observed scaling of period and damping times with wave damping theories are misleading.
Aims: We aim to investigate whether seismological information can be gained from the observed scaling laws in a statistical sense.
Methods: A statistical approach is used whereby scaling laws are produced by forward modelling using distributions of values for key loop cross-sectional structuring parameters. We study two types of observations: 1) transverse loops oscillations as seen mainly with TRACE and SDO and 2) running transverse waves seen with the Coronal Multichannel Polarimeter (CoMP).
Results: We demonstrate that the observed period-damping time scaling law does provide information about the physical damping mechanism, if observations are collected from as wide range of periods as possible and a comparison with theory is performed in a statistical sense. The distribution of the ratio of damping time over period, i.e. the quality factor, has been derived analytically and fitted to the observations. A minimum value for the quality factor of 0.65 has been found. From this, a constraint linking the ranges of possible values for the density contrast and inhomogeneity layer thickness is obtained for transverse loop oscillations. If the layer thickness is not constrained, then the density contrast is at most equal to 3. For transverse waves seen by CoMP, it is found that the ratio of maximum to minimum values for these two parameters has to be less than 2.06; i.e., the sampled values for the layer thickness and Alfvén travel time come from a relatively narrow distribution.
Conclusions: Now that more and more transverse loop oscillations have been analysed, a statistical approach to coronal seismology becomes possible. Using the observed data cloud, we have found restrictions to the loop's density contrast and inhomogeneity layer thickness. Surprisingly, for running waves, narrow distributions for loop parameters have been found. Title: On-Disk Coronal Rain Authors: Antolin, Patrick; Vissers, Gregal; Rouppe van der Voort, Luc Bibcode: 2012SoPh..280..457A Altcode: 2012SoPh..tmp...78A; 2012arXiv1203.2077A Small and elongated, cool and dense blob-like structures are being reported with high resolution telescopes in physically different regions throughout the solar atmosphere. Their detection and the understanding of their formation, morphology, and thermodynamical characteristics can provide important information on their hosting environment, especially concerning the magnetic field, whose understanding constitutes a major problem in solar physics. An example of such blobs is coronal rain, a phenomenon of thermal non-equilibrium observed in active region loops, which consists of cool and dense chromospheric blobs falling along loop-like paths from coronal heights. So far, only off-limb coronal rain has been observed, and few reports on the phenomenon exist. In the present work, several data sets of on-disk Hα observations with the CRisp Imaging SpectroPolarimeter (CRISP) at the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope (SST) are analyzed. A special family of on-disk blobs is selected for each data set, and a statistical analysis is carried out on their dynamics, morphology, and temperature. All characteristics present distributions which are very similar to reported coronal rain statistics. We discuss possible interpretations considering other similar blob-like structures reported so far and show that a coronal rain interpretation is the most likely one. The chromospheric nature of the blobs and the projection effects (which eliminate all direct possibilities of height estimation) on one side, and their small sizes, fast dynamics, and especially their faint character (offering low contrast with the background intensity) on the other side, are found as the main causes for the absence until now of the detection of this on-disk coronal rain counterpart. Title: Implications for Coronal Heating from Coronal Rain Authors: Antolin, P.; Shibata, K.; Carlsson, M.; Rouppe van der Voort, L.; Vissers, G.; Hansteen, V. Bibcode: 2012ASPC..454..171A Altcode: Coronal rain is a phenomenon above active regions in which cool plasma condensations fall down from coronal heights. Numerical simulations of loops have shown that such condensations can naturally form in the case of footpoint concentrated heating through the “catastrophic cooling” mechanism. In this work we analize high resolution limb observations in Ca II H and Hα of coronal rain performed by Hinode/SOT and by Crisp of SST and derive statistical properties. We further investigate the link between coronal rain and the coronal heating mechanisms by performing 1.5-D MHD simulations of a loop subject to footpoint heating and to Alfvén waves generated in the photosphere. It is found that if a loop is heated predominantly from Alfvén waves coronal rain is inhibited due to the characteristic uniform heating they produce. Hence coronal rain can point both to the spatial distribution of the heating and to the agent of the heating itself, thus acting as a marker for coronal heating mechanisms. Title: A Sharp Look at Coronal Rain with Hinode/SOT and SST/CRISP Authors: Antolin, P.; Carlsson, M.; Rouppe van der Voort, L.; Verwichte, E.; Vissers, G. Bibcode: 2012ASPC..455..253A Altcode: 2012arXiv1202.0787A The tropical wisdom that when it is hot and dense we can expect rain might also apply to the Sun. Indeed, observations and numerical simulations have showed that strong heating at footpoints of loops, as is the case for active regions, puts their coronae out of thermal equilibrium, which can lead to a phenomenon known as catastrophic cooling. Following local pressure loss in the corona, hot plasma locally condenses in these loops and dramatically cools down to chromospheric temperatures. These blobs become bright in Hα and Ca ii H in time scales of minutes, and their dynamics seem to be subject more to internal pressure changes in the loop rather than to gravity. They thus become trackers of the magnetic field, which results in the spectacular coronal rain that is observed falling down coronal loops. In this work we report on high resolution observations of coronal rain with the Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) on Hinode and CRISP at the Swedish Solar Telescope (SST). A statistical study is performed in which properties such as velocities and accelerations of coronal rain are derived. We show how this phenomenon can constitute a diagnostic tool for the internal physical conditions inside loops. Furthermore, we analyze transverse oscillations of strand-like condensations composing coronal rain falling in a loop, and discuss the possible nature of the wave. This points to the important role that coronal rain can play in the fields of coronal heating and coronal seismology. Title: Implications for coronal heating and magnetic field topology from coronal rain observations Authors: Antolin, Patrick Bibcode: 2012PhDT........99A Altcode: According to tropical wisdom, when the atmosphere feels hot and dense we can expect rain. Such thinking may also apply to the Sun, as this thesis explains. The presented new high-resolution observations with the Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) of Hinode and the CRISP spectropolarimeter at the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope (SST) show a picture of the Sun in which coronal rain seems to be a far more common phenomenon of active regions (the hot and dense regions in the solar atmosphere) than previously thought. Coronal rain, a phenomenon of thermal instability in plasmas for the case of coronal loops, is composed of small cool and dense blobs observed in chromospheric lines such as Hα or Ca II H, rapidly forming and falling down from coronal heights along loop-like paths. Apart from suggesting its ubiquitous character, in this thesis the importance of coronal rain is highlighted in 3 different ways. First, its potential as a marker for coronal heating mechanisms is shown. More specifically, through numerical simulations the effects of Alfvén waves (a strong coronal heating candidate) on the thermal stability of loops is treated. The results indicate that coronae heated through shock heating from mode conversion of Alfvén waves cannot exhibit coronal rain, thus suggesting that this mechanism may not be important for the heating of active region coronae. Second, the role it plays in coronal seismology is shown. Transverse MHD oscillations in loops are put in evidence by coronal rain in observations with Hinode/SOT, thus offering a way to estimate the coronal magnetic field strength, one of the hardest physical quantities to measure accurately, yet lying at the root of most solar and heliospheric physics. Third, due to the very small sizes of the blobs of which it is composed of, it also serves as a probe for the internal structure and local thermodynamic conditions in loops. In the obtained picture with CRISP of the SST coronal loops appear with constant area cross-sections along their lengths, multi-stranded and unbraided. Furthermore, a significant fraction of strands in the loops show a coherent thermodynamic evolution, thus imposing several constraints on coronal loop modeling. The mass flux raining down is shown to be significant, as compared to the estimated mass injected into the corona from spicules. Title: Observing the Fine Structure of Loops through High-resolution Spectroscopic Observations of Coronal Rain with the CRISP Instrument at the Swedish Solar Telescope Authors: Antolin, P.; Rouppe van der Voort, L. Bibcode: 2012ApJ...745..152A Altcode: 2011arXiv1112.0656A Observed in cool chromospheric lines, such as Hα or Ca II H, coronal rain corresponds to cool and dense plasma falling from coronal heights. Considered as a peculiar sporadic phenomenon of active regions, it has not received much attention since its discovery more than 40 years ago. Yet, it has been shown recently that a close relationship exists between this phenomenon and the coronal heating mechanism. Indeed, numerical simulations have shown that this phenomenon is most likely due to a loss of thermal equilibrium ensuing from a heating mechanism acting mostly toward the footpoints of loops. We present here one of the first high-resolution spectroscopic observations of coronal rain, performed with the CRisp Imaging Spectro Polarimeter (CRISP) instrument at the Swedish Solar Telescope. This work constitutes the first attempt to assess the importance of coronal rain in the understanding of the coronal magnetic field in active regions. With the present resolution, coronal rain is observed to literally invade the entire field of view. A large statistical set is obtained in which dynamics (total velocities and accelerations), shapes (lengths and widths), trajectories (angles of fall of the blobs), and thermodynamic properties (temperatures) of the condensations are derived. Specifically, we find that coronal rain is composed of small and dense chromospheric cores with average widths and lengths of ~310 km and ~710 km, respectively, average temperatures below 7000 K, displaying a broad distribution of falling speeds with an average of ~70 km s-1, and accelerations largely below the effective gravity along loops. Through estimates of the ion-neutral coupling in the blobs we show that coronal rain acts as a tracer of the coronal magnetic field, thus supporting the multi-strand loop scenario, and acts as a probe of the local thermodynamic conditions in loops. We further elucidate its potential in coronal heating. We find that the cooling in neighboring strands occurs simultaneously in general suggesting a similar thermodynamic evolution among strands, which can be explained by a common footpoint heating process. Constraints for coronal heating models of loops are thus provided. Estimates of the fraction of coronal volume with coronal rain give values between 7% and 30%. Estimates of the occurrence time of the phenomenon in loops set times between 5 and 20 hr, implying that coronal rain may be a common phenomenon, in agreement with the frequent observations of cool downflows in extreme-ultraviolet lines. The coronal mass drain rate in the form of coronal rain is estimated to be on the order of 5 × 109 g s-1, a significant quantity compared to the estimate of mass flux into the corona from spicules. Title: Transverse Oscillations of Loops with Coronal Rain Observed by Hinode/Solar Optical Telescope Authors: Antolin, P.; Verwichte, E. Bibcode: 2011ApJ...736..121A Altcode: 2011arXiv1105.2175A The condensations composing coronal rain, falling down along loop-like structures observed in cool chromospheric lines such as Hα and Ca II H, have long been a spectacular phenomenon of the solar corona. However, considered a peculiar sporadic phenomenon, it has not received much attention. This picture is rapidly changing due to recent high-resolution observations with instruments such as the Hinode/Solar Optical Telescope (SOT), CRISP of the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope, and the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Furthermore, numerical simulations have shown that coronal rain is the loss of thermal equilibrium of loops linked to footpoint heating. This result has highlighted the importance that coronal rain can play in the field of coronal heating. In this work, we further stress the importance of coronal rain by showing the role it can play in the understanding of the coronal magnetic field topology. We analyze Hinode/SOT observations in the Ca II H line of a loop in which coronal rain puts in evidence in-phase transverse oscillations of multiple strand-like structures. The periods, amplitudes, transverse velocities, and phase velocities are calculated, allowing an estimation of the energy flux of the wave and the coronal magnetic field inside the loop through means of coronal seismology. We discuss the possible interpretations of the wave as either standing or propagating torsional Alfvén or fast kink waves. An estimate of the plasma beta parameter of the condensations indicates a condition that may allow the often observed separation and elongation processes of the condensations. We also show that the wave pressure from the transverse wave can be responsible for the observed low downward acceleration of coronal rain. Title: Coronal Rain as a Marker for Coronal Heating Mechanisms Authors: Antolin, P.; Shibata, K.; Vissers, G. Bibcode: 2010ApJ...716..154A Altcode: 2009arXiv0910.2383A Reported observations in Hα, Ca II H, and K or other chromospheric lines of coronal rain trace back to the days of the Skylab mission. Corresponding to cool and dense plasma, coronal rain is often observed falling down along coronal loops in active regions. A physical explanation for this spectacular phenomenon has been put forward thanks to numerical simulations of loops with footpoint-concentrated heating, a heating scenario in which cool condensations naturally form in the corona. This effect has been termed "catastrophic cooling" and is the predominant explanation for coronal rain. In this work, we further investigate the link between this phenomenon and the heating mechanisms acting in the corona. We start by analyzing observations of coronal rain at the limb in the Ca II H line performed by the Hinode satellite, and derive interesting statistical properties concerning the dynamics. We then compare the observations with 1.5-dimensional MHD simulations of loops being heated by small-scale discrete events concentrated toward the footpoints (that could come, for instance, from magnetic reconnection events), and by Alfvén waves generated at the photospheric level. Both our observation and simulation results suggest that coronal rain is a far more common phenomenon than previously thought. Also, we show that the structure and dynamics of condensations are far more sensitive to the internal pressure changes in loops than to gravity. Furthermore, it is found that if a loop is predominantly heated from Alfvén waves, coronal rain is inhibited due to the characteristic uniform heating they produce. Hence, coronal rain may not only point to the spatial distribution of the heating in coronal loops but also to the agent of the heating itself. We thus propose coronal rain as a marker for coronal heating mechanisms. Title: The Role Of Torsional Alfvén Waves in Coronal Heating Authors: Antolin, P.; Shibata, K. Bibcode: 2010ApJ...712..494A Altcode: 2009arXiv0910.0962A In the context of coronal heating, among the zoo of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves that exist in the solar atmosphere, Alfvén waves receive special attention. Indeed, these waves constitute an attractive heating agent due to their ability to carry over the many different layers of the solar atmosphere sufficient energy to heat and maintain a corona. However, due to their incompressible nature these waves need a mechanism such as mode conversion (leading to shock heating), phase mixing, resonant absorption, or turbulent cascade in order to heat the plasma. Furthermore, their incompressibility makes their detection in the solar atmosphere very difficult. New observations with polarimetric, spectroscopic, and imaging instruments such as those on board the Japanese satellite Hinode, or the Crisp spectropolarimeter of the Swedish Solar Telescope or the Coronal Multi-channel Polarimeter, are bringing strong evidence for the existence of energetic Alfvén waves in the solar corona. In order to assess the role of Alfvén waves in coronal heating, in this work we model a magnetic flux tube being subject to Alfvén wave heating through the mode conversion mechanism. Using a 1.5 dimensional MHD code, we carry out a parameter survey varying the magnetic flux tube geometry (length and expansion), the photospheric magnetic field, the photospheric velocity amplitudes, and the nature of the waves (monochromatic or white-noise spectrum). The regimes under which Alfvén wave heating produces hot and stable coronae are found to be rather narrow. Independently of the photospheric wave amplitude and magnetic field, a corona can be produced and maintained only for long (>80 Mm) and thick (area ratio between the photosphere and corona >500) loops. Above a critical value of the photospheric velocity amplitude (generally a few km s-1) the corona can no longer be maintained over extended periods of time and collapses due to the large momentum of the waves. These results establish several constraints on Alfvén wave heating as a coronal heating mechanism, especially for active region loops. Title: Signatures of Coronal Heating Mechanisms Authors: Antolin, P.; Shibata, K.; Kudoh, T.; Shiota, D.; Brooks, D. Bibcode: 2010ASSP...19..277A Altcode: 2010mcia.conf..277A; 2009arXiv0903.1766A Alfvén waves created by sub-photospheric motions or by magnetic reconnection in the low solar atmosphere seem good candidates for coronal heating. However, the corona is also likely to be heated more directly by magnetic reconnection, with dissipation taking place in current sheets. Distinguishing observationally between these two heating mechanisms is an extremely difficult task. We perform 1.5-dimensional MHD simulations of a coronal loop subject to each type of heating and derive observational quantities that may allow these to be differentiated. This work is presented in more detail in Antolin et al. (2008). Title: Alfvén Wave and Nanoflare Reconnection Heating: How to Distinguish Them Observationally? Authors: Antolin, P.; Shibata, K.; Kudoh, T.; Shiota, D.; Brooks, D. Bibcode: 2009ASPC..415..247A Altcode: Alfvén waves can dissipate their energy by means of nonlinear mechanisms, and constitute good candidates to heat and maintain the solar corona to the observed few million degrees. Another appealing candidate is nanoflare reconnection heating, in which energy is released through many small magnetic reconnection events. Distinguishing the observational features of each mechanism is an extremely difficult task. By setting up a 1.5D MHD model of a loop we test both heating mechanisms and derive observational quantities. The obtained coronae differ in many aspects; for instance, in the flow patterns along the loop, flow velocities, and the simulated intensity profile that Hinode/XRT would observe. The heating events in the loop exhibit power-law distributions in frequency, whose indexes differ considerably depending on the heating mechanism and its location along the loop. We thus test the observational signatures of the power-law index as a diagnostic tool for the above coronal heating mechanisms. Title: Predicting observational signatures of coronal heating by Alfvén waves and Nanoflares Authors: Antolin, Patrick Bibcode: 2009PhDT.......196A Altcode: The subject of this thesis is the coronal heating problem, a long standing problem not only in solar physics but in astrophysics, since it is addressed to all stars that possess a corona. The Sun, a middle aged main sequence star of class G2V, has been unveiling many mysteries to us in the last century, especially since the advent of the space era. More than 70 years ago a very hot temperature component in the corona was discovered, reaching temperatures as high as a few million degrees. Such a hot corona came as a surprise to astrophysicists, since it seemed to contradict the second law of thermodynamics being 200 times hotter than the underlying photosphere, the source of its energy. Since then the coronal heating problem has spawned an active research community in solar physics that aims to unveil yet another mystery.

This thesis has as purpose to shed some light into the fascinating subject of coronal heating. In the first chapter we give an introduction to the field, in which we discuss the main heating candidate mechanisms: Alfvén wave heating and nanoflare-reconnection heating. Predicting unique observational signatures of each heating mechanism which would allow their distinction during observations is the main purpose of this thesis and the subject of the second chapter. In this chapter we investigate the thermodynamic properties of a corona in a magnetic flux tube obtained, separately, with the two heating mechanisms. We derive a series of observational features which may allow the clear distinction between the two heating mechanisms during observations. In chapter 3 we further investigate the role of Alfvén wave heating in the solar atmosphere. We concentrate our study on magnetic flux tubes (loops), which are closed magnetic structures which populate the solar atmosphere. In the considered model Alfvén waves are generated at the footpoints of a loop and can dissipate their energy mainly through the mode conversion mechanism. A parameter survey is conducted where different parameters of the loop are varied, such as the loop's length, the loop expansion factor, the magnetic field strength at the footpoints of the loop (in the photosphere), and the properties of the Alfvén waves generated in the photosphere (a monochromatic and a white noise spectrum are considered). In chapter 4 we link the coronal heating problem to an observational phenomenon known as coronal rain. We start first by reporting limb observations of coronal rain with Hinode/SOT in the Ca II H line. We then attempt to reproduce the phenomenon in simulations. For this, the mechanism of catastrophic cooling is considered and results are compared with the reported observations. Alfvén waves are then generated in the loop and the effect on the thermal stability of the corona is studied. We show that coronal rain is intimately linked with the underlying coronal heating mechanism, and thus can help pointing out the coronal heating agent. Title: Predicting Observational Signatures of Coronal Heating by Alfvén Waves and Nanoflares Authors: Antolin, P.; Shibata, K.; Kudoh, T.; Shiota, D.; Brooks, D. Bibcode: 2008ApJ...688..669A Altcode: Alfvén waves can dissipate their energy by means of nonlinear mechanisms, and constitute good candidates to heat and maintain the solar corona to the observed few million degrees. Another appealing candidate is nanoflare reconnection heating, in which energy is released through many small magnetic reconnection events. Distinguishing the observational features of each mechanism is an extremely difficult task. On the other hand, observations have shown that energy release processes in the corona follow a power-law distribution in frequency whose index may tell us whether small heating events contribute substantially to the heating or not. In this work we show a link between the power-law index and the operating heating mechanism in a loop. We set up two coronal loop models: in the first model Alfvén waves created by footpoint shuffling nonlinearly convert to longitudinal modes which dissipate their energy through shocks; in the second model numerous heating events with nanoflare-like energies are input randomly along the loop, either distributed uniformly or concentrated at the footpoints. Both models are based on a 1.5-dimensional MHD code. The obtained coronae differ in many aspects; for instance, in the flow patterns along the loop and the simulated intensity profile that Hinode XRT would observe. The intensity histograms display power-law distributions whose indexes differ considerably. This number is found to be related to the distribution of the shocks along the loop. We thus test the observational signatures of the power-law index as a diagnostic tool for the above heating mechanisms and the influence of the location of nanoflares. Title: Predicting observational signatures of coronal heating by Alfvén waves and nanoflares Authors: Antolin, Patrick; Shibata, Kazunari; Kudoh, Takahiro; Shiota, Daiko; Brooks, David Bibcode: 2008IAUS..247..279A Altcode: 2007IAUS..247..279A Alfvén waves can dissipate their energy by means of nonlinear mechanisms, and constitute good candidates to heat and maintain the solar corona to the observed few million degrees. Another appealing candidate is the nanoflare-reconnection heating, in which energy is released through many small magnetic reconnection events. Distinguishing the observational features of each mechanism is an extremely difficult task. On the other hand, observations have shown that energy release processes in the corona follow a power law distribution in frequency whose index may tell us whether small heating events contribute substantially to the heating or not. In this work we show a link between the power law index and the operating heating mechanism in a loop. We set up two coronal loop models: in the first model Alfvén waves created by footpoint shuffling nonlinearly convert to longitudinal modes which dissipate their energy through shocks; in the second model numerous heating events with nanoflare-like energies are input randomly along the loop, either distributed uniformly or concentrated at the footpoints. Both models are based on a 1.5-D MHD code. The obtained coronae differ in many aspects, for instance, in the simulated intensity profile that Hinode/XRT would observe. The intensity histograms display power law distributions whose indexes differ considerably. This number is found to be related to the distribution of the shocks along the loop. We thus test the observational signatures of the power law index as a diagnostic tool for the above heating mechanisms and the influence of the location of nanoflares.