Search

We examine a sampling of 23 polar-coronal-hole jets. We first identified the jets in soft X-ray (SXR) images from the X-ray telescope (XRT) on the Hinode spacecraft, over 2014-2016. During this period, frequently the polar holes were small or largely obscured by foreground coronal haze, often making jets difficult to see. We selected 23 jets among those adequately visible during this period, and examined them further using Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) 171, 193, 211, and 304 Ang images. In SXRs we track the lateral drift of the jet spire relative to the jet base's jet bright point (JBP). In 22 of 23 jets the spire either moves away from (18 cases) or is stationary relative to (4 cases) the JBP. The one exception where the spire moved toward the JBP may be a consequence of line-of-sight projection effects at the limb. From the AIA images, we clearly identify an erupting minifilament in 20 of the 23 jets, while the remainder are consistent with such an eruption having taken place. We also confirm that some jets can trigger onset of nearby "sympathetic" jets, likely because eruption of the minifilament field of the first jet removes magnetic constraints on the base-field region of the second jet. The propensity for spire drift away from the JBP, the identification of the erupting minifilament in the majority of jets, and the magnetic-field topological changes that lead to sympathetic jets, all support or are consistent with the minifilament-eruption model for jets.

Violent solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are magnetic phenomena. However, how magnetic fields reconnecting in the flare differ from non-flaring magnetic fields remains unclear owing to the lack of studies of the flare magnetic properties. Here we present a first statistical study of flaring (highlighted by flare-ribbons) vector magnetic fields in the photosphere. Our systematic approach allows us to describe key physical properties of solar flare magnetism, including distributions of magnetic flux, magnetic shear, vertical current and net current over flaring versus non-flaring parts of the active region, and compare these with flare/CME properties. Our analysis suggests that while flares are guided by the physical properties that scale with AR size, like the total amount of magnetic flux that participates in the reconnection process and the total current (extensive properties), CMEs are guided by mean properties, like the fraction of the AR magnetic flux that participates (intensive property), with little dependence on the amount of shear at polarity inversion line (PIL) or the net current. We find that the non-neutralized current is proportional to the amount of shear at PIL, providing direct evidence that net vertical currents are formed as a result of any mechanism that could generate magnetic shear along PIL. We also find that eruptive events tend to have smaller PIL fluxes and larger magnetic shears than confined events. Our analysis provides a reference for more realistic solar and stellar flare models. The database is available online and can be used for future quantitative studies of flare magnetism., Comment: 25 pages, 12 figures, accepted to The Astrophysical Journal (10 November 2021); Link to FlareMagDB dataset: http://solarmuri.ssl.berkeley.edu/~kazachenko/FlareMagDB/

Coronal mass ejections (CME) occur when long-lived magnetic flux ropes (MFR) anchored to the solar surface destabilize and erupt away from the Sun. This destabilization is often described in terms of an ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instability called the torus instability. It occurs when the external magnetic field decreases sufficiently fast such that its decay index, $n=-z\,\partial\,(\ln B)/\partial z$ is larger than a critical value, $n>n_{\rm cr}$, where $n_{\rm cr}=1.5$ for a full, large aspect ratio torus. However, when this is applied to solar MFRs, a range of conflicting values for $n_{\rm cr}$ is found in the literature. To investigate this discrepancy, we have conducted laboratory experiments on arched, line-tied flux ropes and have applied a theoretical model of the torus instability. Our model describes an MFR as a partial torus with footpoints anchored in a conducting surface and numerically calculates various magnetic forces on it. This calculation yields a better prediction of $n_{\rm cr}$ which takes into account the specific parameters of the MFR. We describe a systematic methodology to properly translate laboratory results to their solar counterparts, provided that the MFRs have sufficiently small edge safety factor, or equivalently, large enough twist. After this translation, our model predicts that $n_{\rm cr}$ in solar conditions often falls near $n_{\rm cr}^{\rm Sol}\sim0.9$ and within a larger range of $n_{\rm cr}^{\rm Sol}\sim(0.7,1.2)$ depending on the parameters. The methodology of translating laboratory MFRs to their solar counterparts enables quantitative investigations of the initiation of CMEs through laboratory experiments. These experiments allow for new physics insights that are required for better predictions of space weather events but are difficult to obtain otherwise., Comment: Submitted to the Astrophysical Journal

We present observations and magnetic field models of an intermediate filament present on the Sun in August 2012, associated with a polarity inversion line that extends from AR 11541 in the east into the quiet sun at its western end. A combination of SDO/AIA, SDO/HMI, and GONG H alpha data allow us to analyse the structure and evolution of the filament from 2012 August 4 23:00 UT to 2012 August 6 08:00 UT when the filament was in equilibrium. By applying the flux rope insertion method, nonlinear force-free field models of the filament are constructed using SDO/HMI line-of-sight magnetograms as the boundary condition at the two times given above. Guided by observed filament barbs, both modelled flux ropes are split into three sections each with a different value of axial flux to represent the non-uniform photospheric field distribution. The flux in the eastern section of the rope increases by 4$\times$10$^{20}$ Mx between the two models, which is in good agreement with the amount of flux cancelled along the internal PIL of AR 11541, calculated to be 3.2$\times$10$^{20}$ Mx. This suggests that flux cancellation builds flux into the filament's magnetic structure. Additionally, the number of field line dips increases between the two models in the locations where flux cancellation, the formation of new filament threads and growth of the filament is observed. This suggests that flux cancellation associated with magnetic reconnection forms concave-up magnetic field that lifts plasma into the filament. During this time, the free magnetic energy in the models increases by 0.2$\times$10$^{31}$ ergs., Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures

We study the properties of the local transverse deviations of magnetic field lines at a fixed moment in time. Those deviations "evolve" smoothly in a plane normal to the field-line direction as one moves that plane along the field line. Since the evolution can be described by a planar flow in the normal plane, we derive most of our results in the context of a toy model for planar fluid flow. We then generalize our results to include the effects of field-line curvature. We show that the type of flow is determined by the two non-zero eigenvalues of the gradient of the normalized magnetic field. The eigenvalue difference quantifies the local rate of squeezing or coiling of neighboring field lines, which we relate to standard notions of fluid vorticity and shear. The resulting squeezing rate can be used in the detection of null points, hyperbolic flux tubes and current sheets. Once integrated along field lines, that rate gives a squeeze factor, which is an approximation to the squashing factor, which is usually employed in locating quasi-separatrix layers (QSLs), which are possible sites for magnetic reconnection. Unlike the squeeze factor, the squashing factor can miss QSLs for which field lines are squeezed and then unsqueezed. In that regard, the squeeze factor is a better proxy for locating QSLs than the squashing factor. In another application of our analysis, we construct an approximation to the local rate of twist of neighboring field lines, which we refer to as the coiling rate. That rate can be integrated along a field line to give a coiling number, $\mathrm{N_c}$. We show that unlike the standard local twist number, $\mathrm{N_c}$ gives an unbiased approximation to the number of twists neighboring field lines make around one another. $\mathrm{N_c}$ can be useful for the study of flux rope instabilities, such as the kink instability, and can be used in the detection of flux ropes., Comment: 48 pages, 6 figures

Magnetic reconnection, the central engine that powers explosive phenomena throughout the Universe, is also perceived as one of the principal mechanisms for accelerating particles to high energies. Although various signatures of magnetic reconnection have been frequently reported, observational evidence that links particle acceleration directly to the reconnection site has been rare, especially for space plasma environments currently inaccessible to $\textit{in situ}$ measurements. Here we utilize broadband radio dynamic imaging spectroscopy available from the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array to observe decimetric type III radio bursts in a solar jet with high angular ($\sim$20$''$), spectral ($\sim$1 %), and temporal resolution (50 milliseconds). These observations allow us to derive detailed trajectories of semi-relativistic (tens of keV) electron beams in the low solar corona with unprecedentedly high angular precision ($<0''.65$). We found that each group of electron beams, which corresponds to a cluster of type III bursts with 1-2-second duration, diverges from an extremely compact region ($\sim$600 km$^2$) in the low solar corona. The beam-diverging sites are located behind the erupting jet spire and above the closed arcades, coinciding with the presumed location of magnetic reconnection in the jet eruption picture supported by extreme ultraviolet/X-ray data and magnetic modeling. We interpret each beam-diverging site as a reconnection null point where multitudes of magnetic flux tubes join and reconnect. Our data suggest that the null points likely consist of a high level of density inhomogeneities possibly down to 10-km scales. These results, at least in the present case, strongly favor a reconnection-driven electron acceleration scenario., Comment: 26 pages, 11 figures, accepted by the $\textit{Astrophysical Journal}$. Associated online videos are available at https://web.njit.edu/~binchen/download/publications/Chen+2018_TP3/

We present the analysis of an unusual failed eruption captured in high cadence and in many wavelengths during the observing campaign in support of the VAULT2.0 sounding rocket launch. The refurbished Very high Angular resolution Ultraviolet Telescope (VAULT2.0) is a Ly$\alpha$ ($\lambda$ 1216 {\AA}) spectroheliograph launched on September 30, 2014. The campaign targeted active region NOAA AR 12172 and was closely coordinated with the Hinode and IRIS missions and several ground-based observatories (NSO/IBIS, SOLIS, and BBSO). A filament eruption accompanied by a low level flaring event (at the GOES C-class level) occurred around the VAULT2.0 launch. No Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) was observed. The eruption and its source region, however, were recorded by the campaign instruments in many atmospheric heights ranging from the photosphere to the corona in high cadence and spatial resolution. This is a rare occasion which enables us to perform a comprehensive investigation on a failed eruption. We find that a rising Magnetic Flux Rope-like (MFR) structure was destroyed during its interaction with the ambient magnetic field creating downflows of cool plasma and diffuse hot coronal structures reminiscent of "cusps". We employ magnetofrictional simulations to show that the magnetic topology of the ambient field is responsible for the destruction of the MFR. Our unique observations suggest that the magnetic topology of the corona is a key ingredient for a successful eruption., Comment: 27 pages, 8 figures, 3 online movies; Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

Quasi-Separatrix Layers (QSLs) are a useful proxy for the locations where current sheets can develop in the solar corona, and give valuable information about the connectivity in complicated magnetic field configurations. However, calculating QSL maps even for 2-dimensional slices through 3-dimensional models of coronal magnetic fields is a non-trivial task as it usually involves tracing out millions of magnetic field lines with immense precision. Thus, extending QSL calculations to three dimensions has rarely been done until now. In order to address this challenge, we present QSL Squasher -- a public, open-source code, which is optimized for calculating QSL maps in both two and three dimensions on GPUs. The code achieves large processing speeds for three reasons, each of which results in an order-of-magnitude speed-up. 1) The code is parallelized using OpenCL. 2) The precision requirements for the QSL calculation are drastically reduced by using perturbation theory. 3) A new boundary detection criterion between quasi-connectivity domains is used, which quickly identifies possible QSL locations which need to be finely sampled by the code. That boundary detection criterion relies on finding the locations of abrupt field-line length changes, which we do by introducing a new Field-line Length Edge (FLEDGE) map. We find FLEDGE maps useful on their own as a quick-and-dirty substitute for QSL maps. QSL Squasher allows constructing high-resolution 3D FLEDGE maps in a matter of minutes, which is two orders of magnitude faster than calculating the corresponding 3D QSL maps. We include a sample of calculations done using QSL Squasher to demonstrate its capabilities as a QSL calculator, as well as to compare QSL and FLEDGE maps., Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures; v2: added footnote

We present a new sample of M subdwarfs compiled from the 7th data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. With 3517 new subdwarfs, this new sample significantly increases the number of spectroscopically confirmed low-mass subdwarfs. This catalog also includes 905 extreme and 534 ultra sudwarfs. We present the entire catalog including observed and derived quantities, and template spectra created from co-added subdwarf spectra. We show color-color and reduced proper motion diagrams of the three metallicity classes, which are shown to separate from the disk dwarf population. The extreme and ultra subdwarfs are seen at larger values of reduced proper motion as expected for more dynamically heated populations. We determine 3D kinematics for all of the stars with proper motions. The color-magnitude diagrams show a clear separation of the three metallicity classes with the ultra and extreme subdwarfs being significantly closer to the main sequence than the ordinary subdwarfs. All subdwarfs lie below (fainter) and to the left (bluer) of the main sequence. Based on the average $(U,V,W)$ velocities and their dispersions, the extreme and ultra subdwarfs likely belong to the Galactic halo, while the ordinary subdwarfs are likely part of the old Galactic (or thick) disk. An extensive activity analysis of subdwarfs is performed using H$\alpha$ emission and 208 active subdwarfs are found. We show that while the activity fraction of subdwarfs rises with spectral class and levels off at the latest spectral classes, consistent with the behavior of M dwarfs, the extreme and ultra subdwarfs are basically flat., Comment: 66 pages, 23 figures, accepted in ApJ

We present a statistical parallax study of nearly 2,000 M subdwarfs with photometry and spectroscopy from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Statistical parallax analysis yields the mean absolute magnitudes, mean velocities and velocity ellipsoids for homogenous samples of stars. We selected homogeneous groups of subdwarfs based on their photometric colors and spectral appearance. We examined the color-magnitude relations of low-mass subdwarfs and quantified their dependence on the newly-refined metallicity parameter, zeta. We also developed a photometric metallicity parameter, delta(g-r), based on the g-r and r-z colors of low-mass stars and used it to select stars with similar metallicities. The kinematics of low-mass subdwarfs as a function of color and metallicity were also examined and compared to main sequence M dwarfs. We find that the SDSS subdwarfs share similar kinematics to the inner halo and thick disk. The color-magnitude relations derived in this analysis will be a powerful tool for identifying and characterizing low-mass metal-poor subdwarfs in future surveys such as GAIA and LSST, making them important and plentiful tracers of the stellar halo., Comment: 14 pages emulateApj format, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in AJ