Liu Jiajia, Nelson Chris J, Snow Ben, Wang Yuming, Erdélyi Robert
Solar Physics and Space Plasma Research Centre (SP2RC), School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S3 7RH, UK.
Astrophysics Research Centre (ARC), School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, BT7 1NN, UK.
Nat Commun. 2019 Aug 5;10(1):3504. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-11495-0.
The multi-million degree temperature increase from the middle to the upper solar atmosphere is one of the most fascinating puzzles in plasma-astrophysics. Although magnetic waves might transport enough energy from the photosphere to heat up the local chromosphere and corona, observationally validating their ubiquity has proved challenging. Here, we show observational evidence that ubiquitous Alfvén pulses are excited by prevalent intensity swirls in the solar photosphere. Correlation analysis between swirls detected at different heights in the solar atmosphere, together with realistic numerical simulations, show that these Alfvén pulses propagate upwards and reach chromospheric layers. We found that Alfvén pulses carry sufficient energy flux (1.9 to 7.7 kW m) to balance the local upper chromospheric energy losses (~0.1 kW m) in quiet regions. Whether this wave energy flux is actually dissipated in the chromosphere and can lead to heating that balances the losses is still an open question.
从太阳大气中层到上层数百万度的温度升高是等离子体天体物理学中最引人入胜的谜题之一。尽管磁波可能从光球层传输足够的能量来加热局部色球层和日冕，但从观测上验证它们的普遍存在已被证明具有挑战性。在这里，我们展示了观测证据，即普遍存在的阿尔文脉冲是由太阳光球层中普遍存在的强度漩涡激发的。对在太阳大气不同高度检测到的漩涡进行相关分析，并结合实际数值模拟，结果表明这些阿尔文脉冲向上传播并到达色球层。我们发现阿尔文脉冲携带足够的能量通量（1.9至7.7千瓦/米）来平衡宁静区域局部上层色球层的能量损失（约0.1千瓦/米）。这种波能通量是否真的在色球层中耗散并能导致平衡损失的加热仍是一个悬而未决的问题。
