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Jinhua Shen

Publications and source records attributed to Jinhua Shen.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

Bidirectional Plasma Jets Driven by Magnetic Reconnection: Observations by GST and SDO

Using high-resolution photospheric and chromospheric observations taken by the Goode Solar Telescope (GST), we studied two groups of bidirectional plasma jets occurring in active region NOAA 13110. Supplementary observations are also provided by Solar Dynamics Observatory's (SDO) Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) and Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI). From the photospheric observations and magnetograms, the two successive bidirectional plasma jets were initially located in the vicinity of the polarity inversion lines and at the intersection of the umbra and penumbra of the sunspot, followed by magnetic flux emergence and cancellation. As the cool filamentary threads are continuously emerging from the lower chromosphere and interact with overlying horizontal magnetic loops, it leads to the bidirectional jets, erupting outflow plasmoids, and heating coronal magnetic loops. We find that the bidirectional jets extended from the central excitation location in opposite directions, at the speed of about dozens of km s$^{-1}$. For the first jet, the initial brightening first appears in 304 angstroms, about 30 s earlier than the H$α$ observations, indicating that magnetic reconnection takes place in the transition region. While the initial reconnection for the second jet occurs simultaneously in H$α$ and 304 angstroms, showing the recurrent eruptions. These observations confirm that the bidirectional plasma jets can be generated by magnetic reconnection between the rising filamentary threads or material and the overlying horizontal magnetic loops. Our results provide new insights into the generation of the bidirectional plasma jets and reconnection-based coronal heating.

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Long-period energy releases during a C2.8 flare

We investigated the intermittent energy-releasing processes by analyzing the long-period pulsations during a C2.8 flare on 2023 June 03. The C2.8 flare shows three successive and repetitive pulsations in soft X-ray (SXR) and high-temperature extreme ultraviolet (EUV) emissions, which may imply three episodes of energy releases during the solar flare. The QPP period is estimated to be as long as about 7.5 minutes. EUV imaging observations suggest that these three pulsations come from the same flare area dominated by the hot loop system. Conversely, the flare radiation in wavelengths of radio/microwave, low-temperature EUV, ultraviolet (UV), and Ha only reveals the first pulsation, which may be associated with nonthermal electrons accelerated by magnetic reconnection. The other two pulsations in wavelengths of SXR and high-temperature EUV might be caused by the loop-loop interaction. Our observations indicate that the three episodes of energy releases during the C2.8 flare are triggered by different mechanisms, namely the accelerated electron via magnetic reconnection, and the loop-loop interaction in a complicated magnetic configuration.

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High-Resolution Observation and Magnetic Modeling of a Solar Minifilament: the Formation, Eruption and Failing Mechanisms

Minifilaments are widespread small-scale structures in the solar atmosphere. To better understand their formation and eruption mechanisms, we investigate the entire life of a sigmoidal minifilament located below a large quiescent filament observed by BBSO/GST on 2015 August 3. The Hα structure initially appears as a group of arched threads, then transforms into two J-shaped arcades, and finally forms a sigmoidal shape. SDO/AIA observations in 171Å show that two coronal jets occur around the southern footpoint of the minifilament before the minifilament eruption. The minifilament eruption starts from the southern footpoint, then interacts with the overlying filament and fails. The aforementioned observational changes correspond to three episodes of flux cancellations observed by SDO/HMI. Unlike previous studies, the flux cancellation occurs between the polarity where southern footpoint of the minifilament is rooted in and an external polarity. We construct two magnetic field models before the eruption using the flux rope insertion method, and find an hyperbolic flux tube (HFT) above the flux cancellation site. The observation and modeling results suggest that the eruption is triggered by the external magnetic reconnection between the core field of the minifilament and the external fields due to flux cancellations. This study reveals a new triggering mechanism for minifilament eruptions and a new relationship between minifilament eruptions and coronal jets.

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Locating heating channels of the solar corona in a plage region with the aid of high-resolution 10830 Å filtergrams

In this paper, with a set of high-resolution He I 10830 Å filtergrams, we select an area in a plage, very likely an EUV moss area, as an interface layer to follow the clues of coronal heating channels down to the photosphere. The filtergrams are obtained from the 1-meter aperture New Vacuum Solar Telescope (NVST). We make a distinction between the darker and the brighter regions in the selected area and name the two regions enhanced absorption patches (EAPs) and low absorption patches (LAPs). With well-aligned, nearly simultaneous data from multiple channels of the AIA and the continuum of the HMI on board SDO, we compare the EUV/UV emissions, emission measure, mean temperature, and continuum intensity in the two kinds of regions. The following progress is made: 1) The mean EUV emissions over EAPs are mostly stronger than the corresponding emissions over LAPs except for the emission at 335 Å. The UV emissions at 1600 and 1700 Å fail to capture the difference between the two regions. 2) In the logarithmic temperature range of 5.6-6.2, EAPs have higher EUV emission measure than LAPs, but they have lower mean coronal temperature. 3) The mean continuum intensity over EAPs is lower. Based on the above progress, we suggest that the energy for coronal heating in the moss region can be traced down to some areas in intergranular lanes with enhanced density of both cool and hot material. The lower temperature over the EAPs is due to the greater fraction of cool material over there.

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Magnetic field extrapolation in active region well comparable with observations in multiple layers

Magnetic field extrapolation is a fundamental tool to reconstruct the three-dimensional magnetic field above the solar photosphere. However, the prevalently used force-free field model might not be applicable in the lower atmosphere with non-negligible plasma \b{eta}, where the crucial process of flux rope formation and evolution could happen. In this work, we perform extrapolation in active region (AR) 12158, based on an recently developed magnetohydrostatic (MHS) method which takes plasma forces into account. By comparing the results with those from the force-free field extrapolation methods, we find that the overall properties, which are characterized by the magnetic free energy and helicity, are roughly the same. The major differences lie in the magnetic configuration and the twist number of magnetic flux rope (MFR). Unlike previous works either obtained sheared arcades or one coherent flux rope, the MHS method derives two sets of MFR, which are highly twisted and slightly coupled. Specifically, the result in the present work is more comparable with the high-resolution observations from the chromosphere, through the transition region to the corona, such as the filament fibrils, pre-eruptive braiding characteristics and the eruptive double-J shaped hot channel. Overall, our work shows that the newly developed MHS method is more promising to reproduce the magnetic fine structures that can well match the observations at multiple layers, and future data-driven simulation based on such extrapolation will benefit in understanding the critical and precise dynamics of flux rope before eruption.

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High-resolution He I 10830 Å narrowband imaging for precursors of chromospheric jets and their quasi-periodic properties

Solar jets are well-collimated plasma ejections in the solar atmosphere. They are prevalent in active regions, the quiet Sun, and even coronal holes. They display a range of temperatures, yet the nature of the cool components has not been fully investigated. In this paper, we show the existence of the precursors and quasi-periodic properties for two chromospheric jets, mainly utilizing the He i 10830 Å narrowband filtergrams taken by the Goode Solar Telescope (GST). The extreme ultraviolet (EUV) counterparts present during the eruption correspond to a blowout jet (jet 1) and a standard jet (jet 2), as observed by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO). The high-resolution He i 10830 Å observation captures a long-lasting precursor for jet 1, signified by a series of cool ejections. They are recurrent jet-like features with a quasi-period of about five minutes. On the other hand, the cool components of jet 2, recurrently accompanied by EUV emissions, present a quasi-periodic behavior with a period of about five minutes. Both the EUV brightening and He i 10830 Å absorption show that there was a precursor for jet 2 that occurred about five minutes before its onset. We propose that the precursor of jet 1 may be the consequence of chromospheric shock waves, since the five-minute oscillation from the photosphere can leak into the chromosphere and develop into shocks. Then, we find that the quasi-periodic behavior of the cool components of jet 2 may be related to magnetic reconnections modulated by the oscillation in the photosphere.

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Magneto-acoustic oscillations observed in a solar plage region

We gave an extensive study for the quasi-periodic perturbations on the time profiles of the line of sight (LOS) magnetic field in 10x10 sub-areas in a solar plage region (corresponds to a facula on the photosphere). The perturbations are found to be associated with enhancement of He I 10830 A absorption in a moss region, which is connected to loops with million-degree plasma. FFT analysis to the perturbations gives a kind of spectrum similar to that of Doppler velocity: a number of discrete periods around 5 minutes. The amplitudes of the magnetic perturbations are found to be proportional to magnetic field strength over these sub-areas. In addition, magnetic perturbations lag behind a quarter of cycle in phase with respect to the p-mode Doppler velocity. We show that the relationships can be well explained with an MHD solution for the magneto-acoustic oscillations in high-\b{eta} plasma. Observational analysis also shows that, for the two regions with the stronger and weaker magnetic field, the perturbations are always anti-phased. All findings show that the magnetic perturbations are actually magneto-acoustic oscillations on the solar surface, the photosphere, powered by p-mode oscillations. The findings may provide a new diagnostic tool for exploring the relationship between magneto-acoustic oscillations and the heating of solar upper atmosphere, as well as their role in helioseismology.

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Observation of solar coronal heating powered by magneto-acoustic oscillations in a moss region

In this paper, we report the observed temporal correlation between extreme-violet (EUV) emission and magneto-acoustic oscillations in a EUV moss region, which is the footpoint region only connected by magnetic loops with million-degree plasma. The result is obtained from a detailed multi-wavelength data analysis to the region with the purpose of resolving fine-scale mass and energy flows that come from the photosphere, pass through the chromosphere and finally heat solar transition region or the corona. The data set covers three atmospheric levels on the Sun, consisting of high-resolution broad-band imaging at TiO 7057 Å and the line of sight magnetograms for the photosphere, high-resolution narrow-band images at Helium \textsc{i} 10830 Å for the chromosphere and EUV images at 171 Å for the corona. We report following new phenomena: 1) Repeated injections of chromospheric material shown as 10830 Å absorption are squirted out from inter-granular lanes with the period of $\sim$ 5 minutes. 2) EUV emissions are found to be periodically modulated with the similar periods of $\sim$ 5 minutes. 3) Around the injection area where 10830 Å absorption is enhanced, both EUV emissions and the strength of magnetic field are remarkably stronger. 4) The peaks on the time profile of the EUV emissions are found to be in sync with oscillatory peaks of the stronger magnetic field in the region. These findings may give a series of strong evidences supporting the scenario that coronal heating is powered by magneto-acoustic waves.

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Early Abnormal Temperature Structure of X-ray Looptop Source of Solar Flares

This Letter is to investigate the physics of a newly discovered phenomenon -- contracting flare loops in the early phase of solar flares. In classical flare models, which were constructed based on the phenomenon of expansion of flare loops, an energy releasing site is put above flare loops. These models can predict that there is a vertical temperature gradient in the top of flare loops due to heat conduction and cooling effects. Therefore, the centroid of an X-ray looptop source at higher energy bands will be higher in altitude, for which we can define as normal temperature distribution. With observations made by {\it RHESSI}, we analyzed 10 M- or X-class flares (9 limb flares). For all these flares, the movement of looptop sources shows an obvious U-shaped trajectory, which we take as the signature of contraction-to-expansion of flare loops. We find that, for all these flares, normal temperature distribution does exist, but only along the path of expansion. The temperature distribution along the path of contraction is abnormal, showing no spatial order at all. The result suggests that magnetic reconnection processes in the contraction and expansion phases of these solar flares are different.

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