arXiv subjects

Navdeep K. Panesar

Publications and source records attributed to Navdeep K. Panesar.

47 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

IRIS and SDO Observations of Solar Jetlets Resulting from Network-Edge Flux Cancelation

Recent observations show that the buildup and triggering of minifilament eruptions that drive coronal jets result from magnetic flux cancelation at the neutral line between merging majority- and minority-polarity magnetic flux patches. We investigate the magnetic setting of ten on-disk small-scale UV/EUV jets (jetlets), smaller than coronal X-ray jets but larger than chromospheric spicules) in a coronal hole by using IRIS UV images and SDOAIA EUV images and line-of-sight magnetograms from SDO/HMI. We observe recurring jetlets at the edges of magnetic network flux lanes in the coronal hole. From magnetograms co-aligned with the IRIS and AIA images, we find, clearly visible in nine cases, that the jetlets stem from sites of flux cancelation proceeding at an average rate of 1.5 X 10^18 Mx hr^{-1}, and show brightenings at their bases reminiscent of the base brightenings in larger-scale coronal jets. We find that jetlets happen at many locations along the edges of network lanes (not limited to the base of plumes) with average lifetimes of 3 min and speeds of 70 kms. The average jetlet-base width (4000 km) is three to four times smaller than for coronal jets (18,000 km). Based on these observations of ten obvious jetlets, and our previous observations of larger-scale coronal jets in quiet regions and coronal holes, we infer that flux cancelation is an essential process in the buildup and triggering of jetlets. Our observations suggest that network jetlet eruptions might be small-scale analogs of both larger-scale coronal jets and the still-larger-scale eruptions producing CMEs.

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arXiv2018

Magnetic Flux Cancelation as the Buildup and Trigger Mechanism for CME-Producing Eruptions in two Small Active Regions

We follow two small, magnetically isolated CME-producing solar active regions (ARs) from the time of their emergence until several days later, when their core regions erupt to produce the CMEs. In both cases, magnetograms show: (a) following an initial period where the poles of the emerging regions separate from each other, the poles then reverse direction and start to retract inward; (b) during the retraction period, flux cancelation occurs along the main neutral line of the regions; (c) this cancelation builds the sheared core field/flux rope that eventually erupts to make the CME. In the two cases, respectively 30% and 50% of the maximum flux of the region cancels prior to the eruption. Recent studies indicate that solar coronal jets frequently result from small-scale filaments eruptions, with those "minifilament" eruptions also being built up and triggered by cancelation of magnetic flux. Together, the small-AR eruptions here and the coronal jet results suggest that isolated bipolar regions tend to erupt when some threshold fraction, perhaps in the range of 50%, of the region's maximum flux has canceled. Our observed erupting filaments/flux ropes form at sites of flux cancelation, in agreement with previous observations. Thus, the recent finding that minifilaments that erupt to form jets also form via flux cancelation is further evidence that minifilaments are small-scale versions of the long-studied full-sized filaments.

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arXiv2018

Critical magnetic field strengths for solar coronal plumes in quiet regions and coronal holes?

Coronal plumes are bright magnetic funnels found in quiet regions (QRs) and coronal holes (CHs). They extend high into the solar corona and last from hours to days. The heating processes of plumes involve dynamics of the magnetic field at their base, but the processes themselves remain mysterious. Recent observations suggest that plume heating is a consequence of magnetic flux cancellation and/or convergence at the plume base. These studies suggest that the base flux in plumes is of mixed polarity, either obvious or hidden in SDO HMI data, but do not quantify it. To investigate the magnetic origins of plume heating, we select ten unipolar network flux concentrations, four in CHs, four in QRs, and two that do not form a plume, and track plume luminosity in SDO AIA 171 A images along with the base flux in SDO HMI magnetograms, over each flux concentrations lifetime. We find that plume heating is triggered when convergence of the base flux surpasses a field strength of 200 to 600 G. The luminosity of both QR and CH plumes respond similarly to the field in the plume base, suggesting that the two have a common formation mechanism. Our examples of non-plume-forming flux concentrations, reaching field strengths of 200 G for a similar number of pixels as for a couple of our plumes, suggest that a critical field might be necessary to form a plume but is not sufficient for it, thus, advocating for other mechanisms, e.g. flux cancellation due to hidden opposite-polarity field, at play.

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arXiv2018

Onset of the magnetic explosion in solar polar coronal X-ray jets

We follow up on the Sterling et al (2015) discovery that nearly all polar coronal X-ray jets are made by an explosive eruption of closed magnetic field carrying a miniature filament in its core. In the same X-ray and EUV movies used by Sterling et al (2015), we examine the onset and growth of the driving magnetic explosion in 15 of the 20 jets that they studied. We find evidence that: (1) in a large majority of polar X-ray jets, the runaway internal/tether-cutting reconnection under the erupting minifilament flux rope starts after both the minifilaments rise and the spire-producing external/breakout reconnection have started and (2) in a large minority, (a) before the eruption starts there is a current sheet between the explosive closed field and the ambient open field, and (b) the eruption starts with breakout reconnection at that current sheet. The variety of event sequences in the eruptions supports the idea that the magnetic explosions that make polar X-ray jets work the same way as the much larger magnetic explosions that make a flare and coronal mass ejection (CME). That idea, and recent observations indicating that magnetic flux cancelation is the fundamental process that builds the field in and around the pre-jet mininfilament and triggers that fields jet-driving explosion, together suggest that flux cancelation inside the magnetic arcade that explodes in a flare/CME eruption is usually the fundamental process that builds the explosive field in the core of the arcade and triggers that fields explosion.

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arXiv2018

Magnetic Flux Cancelation as the Trigger of Solar Coronal-Hole Coronal Jets

We investigate in detail the magnetic cause of minifilament eruptions that drive coronal-hole jets. We study 13 random on-disk coronal hole jet eruptions, using high resolution X-ray images from Hinode/XRT, EUV images from SDO/AIA, and magnetograms from SDO/HMI. For all 13 events, we track the evolution of the jet-base region and find that a minifilament of cool (transition-region-temperature) plasma is present prior to each jet eruption. HMI magnetograms show that the minifilaments reside along a magnetic neutral line between majority-polarity and minority-polarity magnetic flux patches. These patches converge and cancel with each other, with an average cancelation rate of ~0.6 X 10$^18 Mx hr^{-1} for all 13 jets. Persistent flux cancelation at the neutral line eventually destabilizes the minifilament field, which erupts outward and produces the jet spire. Thus, we find that all 13 coronal-hole-jet-driving minifilament eruptions are triggered by flux cancelation at the neutral line. These results are in agreement with our recent findings Panesar et al 2016b for quiet-region jets, where flux cancelation at the underlying neutral line triggers the minifilament eruption that drives each jet. Thus from that study of quiet-Sun jets and this study of coronal hole jets, we conclude that flux cancelation is the main candidate for triggering quiet region and coronal hole jets

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arXiv2017

Magnetic Flux Cancelation as the Origin of Solar Quiet Region Pre-Jet Minifilaments

We investigate the origin of ten solar quiet region pre-jet minifilaments, using EUV images from SDO/AIA and magnetograms from SDO/HMI. We recently found panesar16b that quiet region coronal jets are driven by minifilament eruptions, where those eruptions result from flux cancelation at the magnetic neutral line under the minifilament. Here, we study the longer-term origin of the pre-jet minifilaments themselves. We find that they result from flux cancelation between minority-polarity and majority-polarity flux patches. In each of ten pre-jet regions, we find that opposite-polarity patches of magnetic flux converge and cancel, with a flux reduction of 10--40% from before to after the minifilament appears. For our ten events, the minifilaments exist for periods ranging from 1.5 hr to two days before erupting to make a jet. Apparently, the flux cancelation builds highly sheared field that runs above and traces the neutral line, and the cool-transition-region-plasma minifilament forms in this field and is suspended in it. We infer that the convergence of the opposite-polarity patches results in reconnection in the low corona that builds a magnetic arcade enveloping the minifilament in its core, and that the continuing flux cancelation at the neutral line finally destabilizes the minifilament field so that it erupts and drives the production of a coronal jet. Thus our observations strongly support that quiet region magnetic flux cancelation results in both the formation of the pre-jet minifilament and its jet-driving eruption.

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arXiv2017

New Evidence that Magnetoconvection Drives Solar-Stellar Coronal Heating

How magnetic energy is injected and released in the solar corona, keeping it heated to several million degrees, remains elusive. Coronal heating generally increases with increasing magnetic field strength. From comparison of a non-linear force-free model of the three-dimensional active-region coronal field to observed extreme-ultraviolet loops, we find that (1) umbra-to-umbra coronal loops, despite being rooted in the strongest magnetic flux, are invisible, and (2) the brightest loops have one foot in an umbra or penumbra and the other foot in another sunspot's penumbra or in unipolar or mixed-polarity plage. The invisibility of umbra-to-umbra loops is new evidence that magnetoconvection drives solar-stellar coronal heating: evidently the strong umbral field at \underline{both} ends quenches the magnetoconvection and hence the heating. Broadly, our results indicate that, depending on the field strength in both feet, the photospheric feet of a coronal loop on any convective star can either engender or quench coronal heating in the loop's body.

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arXiv2017

Solar Active Region Coronal Jets II: Triggering and Evolution of Violent Jets

We study a series of X-ray-bright, rapidly-evolving active-region coronal jets outside the leading sunspot of AR 12259, using Hinode/XRT, SDO/AIA and HMI, and IRIS data. The detailed evolution of such rapidly evolving "violent" jets remained a mystery after our previous investigation of active region jets (Sterling et al. 2016, Paper 1). The jets we investigate here erupt from three localized subregions, each containing a rapidly evolving (positive) minority-polarity magnetic-flux patch bathed in a (majority) negative-polarity magnetic-flux background. At least several of the jets begin with eruptions of what appear to be thin (thickness <~2") miniature-filament (minifilament) "strands" from a magnetic neutral line where magnetic flux cancelation is ongoing, consistent with the magnetic configuration presented for coronal-hole jets in Sterling et al. (2015). Some jets strands are difficult/impossible to detect, perhaps due to, e.g. their thinness, obscuration by surrounding bright or dark features, or the absence of erupting cool-material minifilaments in those jets. Tracing in detail the flux evolution in one of the subregions, we find bursts of strong jetting occurring only during times of strong flux cancelation. Averaged over seven jetting episodes, the cancelation rate was ~1.5x10^19 Mx/hr. An average flux of ~5x10^18 Mx canceled prior to each episode, arguably building up ~10^28 - 10^29 ergs of free magnetic energy per jet. From these and previous observations, we infer that flux cancelation is the fundamental process responsible for the pre-eruption buildup and triggering of at least many jets in active regions, quiet regions, and coronal holes.

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arXiv2016

Magnetic Flux Cancellation as the Trigger of Solar Quiet-Region Coronal Jets

We report observations of ten random on-disk solar quiet region coronal jets found in high resolution Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)/Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) and having good coverage in magnetograms from the SDO/Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI). Recent studies show that coronal jets are driven by the eruption of a small-scale filament (called a minifilament). However the trigger of these eruptions is still unknown. In the present study we address the question: what leads to the jet-driving minifilament eruptions? The EUV observations show that there is a cool-transition-region-plasma minifilament present prior to each jet event and the minifilament eruption drives the jet. By examining pre-jet evolutionary changes in the line-of-sight photospheric magnetic field we observe that each pre-jet minifilament resides over the neutral line between majority-polarity and minority-polarity patches of magnetic flux. In each of the ten cases, the opposite-polarity patches approach and merge with each other (flux reduction between 21 and 57%). After several hours, continuous flux cancellation at the neutral line apparently destabilizes the field holding the cool-plasma minifilament to erupt and undergo internal reconnection, and external reconnection with the surrounding-coronal field. The external reconnection opens the minifilament field allowing the minifilament material to escape outwards, forming part of the jet spire. Thus we found that each of the ten jets resulted from eruption of a minifilament following flux cancellation at the neutral line under the minifilament. These observations establish that magnetic flux cancellation is usually the trigger of quiet region coronal jet eruptions.

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arXiv2016

Homologous Jet-Driven Coronal Mass Ejections From Solar Active Region 12192

We report observations of homologous coronal jets and their coronal mass ejections (CMEs) observed by instruments onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft. The homologous jets originated from a location with emerging and canceling magnetic field at the southeast edge of the giant active region (AR) of 2014 October, NOAA 12192. This AR produced in its interior many non-jet major flare eruptions (X and M class) that made no CME. During 20-27 October, in contrast to the major-flare eruptions in the interior, six of the homologous jets from the edge resulted in CMEs. Each jet-driven CME( ~200-300 kms) was slower-moving than most CMEs; had angular width (20-50 degree) comparable to that of the base of a coronal streamer straddling the AR; and was of the `streamer-puff' variety, whereby the preexisting streamer was transiently inflated but not destroyed by the passage of the CME. Much of the transition-region-temperature plasma in the CME-producing jets escaped from the Sun, whereas relatively more of the transition-region plasma in non-CME-producing jets fell back to the solar surface. Also, the CME-producing jets tended to be faster and longer-lasting than the non-CME-producing jets. Our observations imply: each jet and CME resulted from reconnection opening of twisted field that erupted from the jet base; and the erupting field did not become a plasmoid as previously envisioned for streamer-puff CMEs, but instead the jet-guiding streamer-base loop was blown out by the loop's twist from the reconnection.

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arXiv2015

Destabilization of a Solar Prominence/Filament Field System by a Series of Eight Homologous Eruptive Flares

Homologous flares are flares that occur repetitively in the same active region, with similar structure and morphology. A series of at least eight homologous flares occurred in active region NOAA 11237 over 16 - 17 June 2011. A nearby prominence/filament was rooted in the active region, and situated near the bottom of a coronal cavity. The active region was on the southeast solar limb as seen from SDO/AIA, and on the disk as viewed from STEREO/EUVI-B. The dual perspective allows us to study in detail behavior of the prominence/filament material entrained in the magnetic field of the repeatedly-erupting system. Each of the eruptions was mainly confined, but expelled hot material into the prominence/filament cavity system (PFCS). The field carrying and containing the ejected hot material interacted with the PFCS and caused it to inflate, resulting in a step-wise rise of the PFCS approximately in step with the homologous eruptions. The eighth eruption triggered the PFCS to move outward slowly, accompanied by a weak coronal dimming. As this slow PFCS eruption was underway, a final ejective flare occurred in the core of the active region, resulting in strong dimming in the EUVI-B images and expulsion of a coronal mass ejection (CME). A plausible scenario is that the repeated homologous flares could have gradually destabilized the PFCS, and its subsequent eruption removed field above the acitive region and in turn led to the ejective flare, strong dimming, and CME.

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