Journal
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL LETTERS
Volume 718, Issue 2, Pages L102-L105Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/718/2/L102
Keywords
magnetic fields; magnetohydrodynamics (MHD); plasmas; Sun: corona; Sun: oscillations
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Funding
- Spanish Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia [AYA2006-07637]
- K.U.Leuven [GOA/2009-009]
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In this Letter, we establish clear evidence for the resonant absorption damping mechanism by analyzing observational data from the novel Coronal Multi-Channel Polarimeter. This instrument has established that in the solar corona there are ubiquitous propagating low-amplitude (approximate to 1 km s(-1)) Alfvenic waves with a wide range of frequencies. Realistically interpreting these waves as the kink mode from magnetohydrodynamic wave theory, they should exhibit a frequency-dependent damping length due to resonant absorption, governed by the Terradas-Goossens-Verth relation showing that transverse plasma inhomogeneity in coronal magnetic flux tubes causes them to act as natural low-pass filters. It is found that the observed frequency dependence on damping length (up to about 8 mHz) can be explained by the kink wave interpretation; and furthermore, the spatially averaged equilibrium parameter describing the length scale of transverse plasma density inhomogeneity over a system of coronal loops is consistent with the range of values estimated from Transition Region and Coronal Explorer observations of standing kink modes.
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