arXiv subjects

Luca Teriaca

Publications and source records attributed to Luca Teriaca.

29 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

Coronal microjets in quiet-Sun regions observed with the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager onboard Solar Orbiter

We report the smallest coronal jets ever observed in the quiet Sun with recent high resolution observations from the High Resolution Telescopes (HRI-EUV and HRI-Lyα) of the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) onboard Solar Orbiter. In the HRI-EUV (174 Å) images, these microjets usually appear as nearly collimated structures with brightenings at their footpoints. Their average lifetime, projected speed, width, and maximum length are 4.6 min, 62 km s^(-1), 1.0 Mm, and 7.7 Mm, respectively. Inverted-Y shaped structures and moving blobs can be identified in some events. A subset of these events also reveal signatures in the HRI-Lyα (H I Lyα at 1216 Å) images and the extreme ultraviolet images taken by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Our differential emission measure analysis suggests a multi-thermal nature and an average density of ~1.4x10^9 cm^(-3) for these microjets. Their thermal and kinetic energies were estimated to be ~3.9x10^24 erg and ~2.9x10^23 erg, respectively, which are of the same order of the released energy predicted by the nanoflare theory. Most events appear to be located at the edges of network lanes and magnetic flux concentrations, suggesting that these coronal microjets are likely generated by magnetic reconnection between small-scale magnetic loops and the adjacent network field.

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arXiv2019

Metis: the Solar Orbiter visible light and ultraviolet coronal imager

Metis is the first solar coronagraph designed for a space mission capable of performing simultaneous imaging of the off-limb solar corona in both visible and UV light. The observations obtained with Metis aboard the Solar Orbiter ESA-NASA observatory will enable us to diagnose, with unprecedented temporal coverage and spatial resolution, the structures and dynamics of the full corona from 1.7 $R_\odot$ to about 9 $R_\odot$. Due to the uniqueness of the Solar Orbiter mission profile, Metis will be able to observe the solar corona from a close vantage point (down to 0.28 AU), achieving out-of-ecliptic views with the increase of the orbit inclination over time. Moreover, observations near perihelion, during the phase of lower rotational velocity of the solar surface relative to the spacecraft, will allow longer-term studies of the coronal features. Thanks to a novel occultation design and a combination of a UV interference coating of the mirrors and a spectral bandpass filter, Metis images the solar corona simultaneously in the visible light band, between 580 and 640 nm, and in the UV H I Lyman-α line at 121.6 nm. The coronal images in both the UV Lyman-α and polarised visible light are obtained at high spatial resolution with a spatial scale down to about 2000 km and 15000 km at perihelion, in the cases of the visible and UV light, respectively. A temporal resolution down to 1 second can be achieved when observing coronal fluctuations in visible light. The Metis measurements will allow for complete characterisation of the main physical parameters and dynamics of the electron and neutral hydrogen/proton plasma components of the corona in the region where the solar wind undergoes acceleration and where the onset and initial propagation of coronal mass ejections take place, thus significantly improving our understanding of the region connecting the Sun to the heliosphere.

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arXiv2017

Spectroscopy of very hot plasma in non-flaring parts of a solar limb active region: spatial and temporal properties

In this work we investigate the thermal structure of an off-limb active region in various non-flaring areas, as it provides key information on the way these structures are heated. In particular, we concentrate in the very hot component (>3 MK) as it is a crucial element to discriminate between different heating mechanisms. We present an analysis using Fe and Ca emission lines from both SOHO/SUMER and HINODE/EIS. A dataset covering all ionization stages from Fe X to Fe XIX has been used for the thermal analysis (both DEM and EM). Ca XIV is used for the SUMER-EIS radiometric cross-calibration. We show how the very hot plasma is present and persistent almost everywhere in the core of the limb AR. The off-limb AR is clearly structured in Fe XVIII. Almost everywhere, the EM analysis reveals plasma at 10 MK (visible in Fe XIX emission) which is down to 0.1% of EM of the main 3 MK plasma. We estimate the power law index of the hot tail of the EM to be between -8.5 and -4.4. However, we leave an open question on the possible existence of a small minor peak at around 10 MK. The absence in some part of the AR of Fe XIX and Fe XXIII lines (which fall into our spectral range) enables us to determine an upper limit on the EM at such temperatures. Our results include a new Ca XIV 943.59 Å~ atomic model.

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arXiv2013

The SUMER Data in the SOHO Archive

We have released an archive of all observational data of the VUV spectrometer Solar Ultraviolet Measurements of Emitted Radiation (SUMER) on SOHO that has been acquired until now. The operational phase started with 'first light' observations on 27 January 1996 and will end in 2014. Future data will be added to the archive when they become available. The archive consists of a set of raw data (Level 0) and a set of data that are processed and calibrated to the best knowledge we have today (Level 1). This communication describes step by step the data acquisition and processing that has been applied in an automated manner to build the archive. It summarizes the expertise and insights into the scientific use of SUMER spectra that has accumulated over the years. It also indicates possibilities for further enhancement of the data quality. With this article we intend to convey our own understanding of the instrument performance to the scientific community and to introduce the new, standard-FITS-format database.

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arXiv2012

Doppler shift of hot coronal lines in a moss area of an active region

The moss is the area at the footpoint of the hot (3 to 5 MK) loops forming the core of the active region where emission is believed to result from the heat flux conducted down to the transition region from the hot loops. Studying the variation of Doppler shift as a function of line formation temperatures over the moss area can give clues on the heating mechanism in the hot loops in the core of the active regions. We investigate the absolute Doppler shift of lines formed at temperatures between 1 MK and 2 MK in a moss area within active region NOAA 11243 using a novel technique that allows determining the absolute Doppler shift of EUV lines by combining observations from the SUMER and EIS spectrometers. The inner (brighter and denser) part of the moss area shows roughly constant blue shift (upward motions) of 5 km/s in the temperature range of 1 MK to 1.6 MK. For hotter lines the blue shift decreases and reaches 1 km/s for Fe xv 284 Å (~2 MK). The measurements are discussed in relation to models of the heating of hot loops. The results for the hot coronal lines seem to support the quasi-steady heating models for non-symmetric hot loops in the core of active regions.

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arXiv2012

Quiet Sun Explosive Events: Jets, Splashes, and Eruptions

Explosive events are small transition region phenomena characterised by broad non-Gaussian wings in their line profiles. Images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) give a first view of the plasma dynamics at the sites of explosive events seen in O VI spectra of a region of quiet Sun, taken with the ultraviolet spectrometer SUMER/SOHO. Distinct event bursts were seen either at the junction of supergranular network cells or near emerging flux. Three are described in the context of their surrounding transition region (304 A) and coronal (171 A) activity. One showed plasma ejected from one footpoint of a small loop which resulted in a `splash' at the other footpoint. The second was related to flux cancellation, inferred from SDO/HMI magnetograms, and a coronal dimming surrounded by a ring of bright EUV emission with explosive events at positions where the spectrometer slit crossed the bright ring. The third series of events occurred at the base of a slow mini-CME. All events studied here imply jet-like flows probably triggered by magnetic reconnection at supergranular junctions. Events come from sites close to the footpoints of jets seen in AIA images, and possibly from the landing site of induced high velocity flows. They are not caused by rapid rotation in spicules.

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arXiv2012

Spectroscopic Observations of Fe XVIII in Solar Active Regions

The large uncertainties associated with measuring the amount of high temperature emission in solar active regions represents a significant impediment to making progress on the coronal heating problem. Most current observations at temperatures of 3 MK and above are taken with broad band soft X-ray instruments. Such measurements have proven difficult to interpret unambiguously. Here we present the first spectroscopic observations of the Fe XVIII 974.86 AA emission line in an on-disk active region taken with then SUMER instrument on SOHO. Fe XVIII has a peak formation temperature of 7.1 MK and provides important constraints on the amount of impulsive heating in the corona. Detailed evaluation of the spectra and comparison of the SUMER data with soft X-ray images from the XRT on Hinode confirm that this line is unblended. We also compare the spectroscopic data with observations from the AIA 94 AA channel on SDO. The AIA 94 AA channel also contains Fe XVIII, but is blended with emission formed at lower temperatures. We find that is possible to remove the contaminating blends and form relatively pure Fe XVIII images that are consistent with the spectroscopic observations from SUMER. The observed spectra also contain the Ca XIV 943.63 AA line that, although a factor 2 to 6 weaker than the Fe XVIII 974.86 AA line, allows us to probe the plasma around 3.5 MK. The observed ratio between the two lines indicates (isothermal approximation) that most of the plasma in the brighter Fe XVIII active region loops is at temperatures between 3.5 and 4 MK.

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arXiv2011

LEMUR: Large European Module for solar Ultraviolet Research. European contribution to JAXA's Solar-C mission

Understanding the solar outer atmosphere requires concerted, simultaneous solar observations from the visible to the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) and soft X-rays, at high spatial resolution (between 0.1" and 0.3"), at high temporal resolution (on the order of 10 s, i.e., the time scale of chromospheric dynamics), with a wide temperature coverage (0.01 MK to 20 MK, from the chromosphere to the flaring corona), and the capability of measuring magnetic fields through spectropolarimetry at visible and near-infrared wavelengths. Simultaneous spectroscopic measurements sampling the entire temperature range are particularly important. These requirements are fulfilled by the Japanese Solar-C mission (Plan B), composed of a spacecraft in a geosynchronous orbit with a payload providing a significant improvement of imaging and spectropolarimetric capabilities in the UV, visible, and near-infrared with respect to what is available today and foreseen in the near future. The Large European Module for solar Ultraviolet Research (LEMUR), described in this paper, is a large VUV telescope feeding a scientific payload of high-resolution imaging spectrographs and cameras. LEMUR consists of two major components: a VUV solar telescope with a 30 cm diameter mirror and a focal length of 3.6 m, and a focal-plane package composed of VUV spectrometers covering six carefully chosen wavelength ranges between 17 and 127 nm. The LEMUR slit covers 280" on the Sun with 0.14" per pixel sampling. In addition, LEMUR is capable of measuring mass flows velocities (line shifts) down to 2 km/s or better. LEMUR has been proposed to ESA as the European contribution to the Solar C mission.

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arXiv2011

The quiet Sun average Doppler shift of coronal lines up to 2 MK

The average Doppler shift shown by spectral lines formed from the chromosphere to the corona reveals important information on the mass and energy balance of the solar atmosphere, providing an important observational constraint to any models of the solar corona. Previous spectroscopic observations of vacuum ultra-violet (VUV) lines have revealed a persistent average wavelength shift of lines formed at temperatures up to 1 MK. At higher temperatures, the behaviour is still essentially unknown. Here we analyse combined SUMER/SoHO and EIS/Hinode observations of the quiet Sun around disk centre to determine, for the first time, the average Doppler shift of several spectral lines formed between 1 and 2 MK, where the largest part of the quiet coronal emission is formed. The measurements are based on a novel technique applied to EIS spectra to measure the difference in Doppler shift between lines formed at different temperatures. Simultaneous wavelength-calibrated SUMER spectra allow establishing the absolute value at the reference temperature of 1 MK. The average line shifts at 1 MK < T < 1.8 MK are modestly, but clearly bluer than those observed at 1 MK. By accepting an average blue shift of about (-1.8+/-0.6) km/s at 1 MK (as provided by SUMER measurements), this translates into a maximum Doppler shift of (-4.4+/-2.2) km/s around 1.8 MK. The measured value appears to decrease to about (-1.3+/-2.6) km/s at the Fe XV formation temperature of 2.1 MK. The measured average Doppler shift between 0.01 and 2.1 MK, for which we provide a parametrisation, appears to be qualitatively and roughly quantitatively consistent with what foreseen by 3-D coronal models where heating is produced by dissipation of currents induced by photospheric motions and by reconnection with emerging magnetic flux.

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arXiv2009

Hydrogen Lyman-alpha and Lyman-beta radiances and profiles in polar coronal holes

The hydrogen Lyman-alpha plays a dominant role in the radiative energy transport in the lower transition region, and is important for the stud- ies of transition-region structure as well as solar wind origin. We investigate the Ly-alpha profiles obtained by SUMER in coronal holes and quiet Sun. In a subset of these observations, also the Hi Lyman-beta, Si iii, and O vi lines were (quasi-) simultaneously recorded. We find that the distances between the two peaks of Ly-alpha profiles are larger in coronal holes than in the quiet Sun, indicating a larger opacity in coronal holes. This difference might result from the different magnetic structures or the different radiation fields in the two regions. Most of the Ly-beta profiles in the coronal hole have a stronger blue peak, in contrast to those in quiet-Sun regions. Whilst in both regions the Ly-alpha profiles are stronger in the blue peak. Although the asymmetries are likely to be produced by differential flows in the solar atmosphere, their detailed formation processes are still unclear. The radiance ratio between Ly-alpha and Ly-beta decreases towards the limb in the coronal hole, which might be due to the different opacity of the two lines. We also find that the radiance distributions of the four lines are set by a combined effect of limb brightening and the different emission level between coronal holes and quiet Sun.

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arXiv2008

Helium line formation and abundance during a C-class flare

During a coordinated campaign which took place in May 2001, a C-class flare was observed both with SOHO instruments and with the Dunn Solar Telescope of the National Solar Observatory at Sacramento Peak. In two previous papers we have described the observations and discussed some dynamical aspects of the earlier phases of the flare, as well as the helium line formation in the active region prior to the event. Here we extend the analysis of the helium line formation to the later phases of the flare in two different locations of the flaring area. We have devised a new technique, exploiting all available information from various SOHO instruments, to determine the spectral distribution of the photoionizing EUV radiation produced by the corona overlying the two target regions. In order to find semiempirical models matching all of our observables, we analyzed the effect on the calculated helium spectrum both of A(He) (the He abundance) and of the uncertainties in the incident EUV radiation (level and spectral distribution). We found that the abundance has in most cases (but not in all) a larger effect than the coronal back-radiation. The result of our analysis is that, considering the error of the measured lines, and adopting our best estimate for the coronal EUV illumination, the value A(He)=0.075 +/- 0.010 in the chromosphere (for T>6300 K) and transition region yields reasonably good matches for all the observed lines. This value is marginally consistent with the most commonly accepted photospheric value: A(He)=0.085.

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