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Torsional oscillations within a magnetic pore in the solar photosphere

Nature Astronomy volume 5, pages 691–696 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Alfvén waves have proven to be important in a range of physical systems due to their ability to transport non-thermal energy over long distances in a magnetized plasma. This property is of specific interest in solar physics, where the extreme heating of the atmosphere of the Sun remains unexplained. In an inhomogeneous plasma such as a flux tube in the solar atmosphere, they manifest as incompressible torsional perturbations. However, despite evidence in the upper atmosphere, they have not been directly observed in the photosphere. Here, we report the detection of antiphase incompressible torsional oscillations observed in a magnetic pore in the photosphere by the Interferometric Bidimensional Spectropolarimeter. State-of-the-art numerical simulations suggest that a kink mode is a possible excitation mechanism of these waves. The excitation of torsional waves in photospheric magnetic structures can substantially contribute to the energy transport in the solar atmosphere and the acceleration of the solar wind, especially if such signatures will be ubiquitously detected in even smaller structures with the forthcoming next generation of solar telescopes.

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Fig. 1: Detection of torsional oscillations in a compact magnetic structure in the solar photosphere.
Fig. 2: Power spectrum of the torsional oscillations and harmonics.
Fig. 3: Wavelet analysis of the rotational velocity of the two lobes.
Fig. 4: Incompressibility of the torsional oscillations.

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Data availability

The IBIS data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study can be downloaded from the IBIS-A archive http://ibis.oa-roma.inaf.it/IBISA/database/.

Code availability

LareXd is a set of Lagrangian remap codes for MHD simulations. The open source code is available for download from https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/physics/research/cfsa/people/tda/larexd/.

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Acknowledgements

R.E. and M.B.K. are grateful to the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) (UK, grant number ST/M000826/1 and ST/S000518/1). R.E., M.B.K., F.B. and D.D.M. acknowledge support from EU H2020 (SOLARNET grant number 158538). R.E. also acknowledges support from the Chinese Academy of Sciences President’s International Fellowship Initiative (PIFI, grant number 2019VMA0052) and The Royal Society (grant number IE161153). M.S. thanks the Solar Physics and Space Plasma Research Centre (SP2RC), School of Mathematics and Statistics (SoMaS), The University of Sheffield, for the warm hospitality and support received as an MSRC Visiting Research Fellow while carrying out part of this research. M.S. and C.B. acknowledge scientific discussions at the Theo Murphy Discussion Meeting ‘High-resolution wave dynamics in the lower solar atmosphere’, supported by The Royal Society. C.B. would like to thank UK STFC DISCnet for financial support of his PhD studentship. This research utilized Queen Mary’s Apocrita HPC facility, supported by QMUL Research-IT. C.J.N. is grateful to the STFC for the support received to conduct this research through grant number ST/P000304/1. We thank G. Verth for some initial discussions. This research made use of SciPy, NumPy and Matplotlib, community-developed Python packages.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ASI, Italian Space Agency, Rome, Italy

    Marco Stangalini

  2. INAF-OAR, National Institute for Astrophysics, Monte Porzio Catone, Italy

    Marco Stangalini

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

    Robertus Erdélyi & Marianna B. Korsós

  4. Department of Astronomy, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary

    Robertus Erdélyi & Marianna B. Korsós

  5. Gyula Bay Zoltán Solar Observatory (GSO), Hungarian Solar Physics Foundation (HSPF), Gyula, Hungary

    Robertus Erdélyi

  6. School of Physics and Astronomy, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK

    Callum Boocock & David Tsiklauri

  7. Astrophysics Research Centre (ARC), School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University, Belfast, UK

    Christopher J. Nelson

  8. Department of Physics, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy

    Dario Del Moro & Francesco Berrilli

  9. Department of Physics, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, UK

    Marianna B. Korsós

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Contributions

R.E. devised and proposed the experiment. M.S. worked out the method of data analysis and performed it with assistance from C.J.N. C.B. and D.T. planned, designed and carried out the MHD numerical simulations. R.E., M.S., C.J.N., C.B., D.T. and M.B.K. also helped in the interpretation. D.D.M. and F.B. prepared the observing proposal and calibrated the data with help from M.S. M.S. and R.E. wrote the manuscript with the help of C.J.N., M.B.K., C.B. and D.T. All authors discussed the interpretation of the results.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Marco Stangalini or Robertus Erdélyi.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Peer review information Nature Astronomy thanks Clara Froment and Jianpeng Guo for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary text including Figs. 1–8.

Supplementary Video 1

A video showing partial fluid streamlines perpendicular to the flux tube at a height of 500 km above the photosphere. The strength of the streamlines is shown by their length and colour as indicated by the colour bar. The streamlines are overlaid on a counter of the density, clearly showing the position of the flux tube. The video clearly shows the formation of torsional motions at the tube boundary.

Supplementary Video 2

A video showing partial fluid streamlines perpendicular to the flux tube at a height of 1 Mm above the photosphere. The strength of the streamlines is shown by their length and colour as indicated by the colour bar. The streamlines are overlaid on a counter of the density, clearly showing the position of the flux tube. The video clearly shows the formation of torsional motions at the tube boundary.

Supplementary Video 3

A video showing partial fluid streamlines perpendicular to the flux tube at a height of 2 Mm above the photosphere. The strength of the streamlines is shown by their length and colour as indicated by the colour bar. The streamlines are overlaid on a counter of the density, clearly showing the position of the flux tube. The video clearly shows the formation of torsional motions at the tube boundary.

Supplementary Video 4

A video showing the field lines of the magnetic perturbation perpendicular to the flux tube at a height of 500 km above the photosphere. The strength of the field lines is shown by their length and colour as indicated by the colour bar. The field lines are overlaid on a counter of the density, clearly showing the position of the flux tube. The video clearly shows the formation of torsional magnetic perturbations at the tube boundary.

Supplementary Video 5

A video showing the field lines of the magnetic perturbation perpendicular to the flux tube at a height of 1 Mm above the photosphere. The strength of the field lines is shown by their length and colour as indicated by the colour bar. The field lines are overlaid on a counter of the density, clearly showing the position of the flux tube. The video clearly shows the formation of torsional magnetic perturbations at the tube boundary.

Supplementary Video 6

A video showing the field lines of the magnetic perturbation perpendicular to the flux tube at a height of 2 Mm above the photosphere. The strength of the field lines is shown by their length and colour as indicated by the colour bar. The field lines are overlaid on a counter of the density, clearly showing the position of the flux tube. The video clearly shows the formation of torsional magnetic perturbations at the tube boundary.

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Stangalini, M., Erdélyi, R., Boocock, C. et al. Torsional oscillations within a magnetic pore in the solar photosphere. Nat Astron 5, 691–696 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-021-01354-8

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