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Tongjiang Wang

Publications and source records attributed to Tongjiang Wang.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Quasi-Periodic Fast-Mode Wave Trains Associated with the 2015-Jun-22 M6.5 Flare in AR~12371: Observations and 3D MHD Modeling

Quasi-periodic fast-propagating (QFP) wave trains are a distinctive form of magnetohydrodynamic disturbance frequently observed in the solar corona. Yet their excitation mechanism and propagation characteristics are not well understood. In this study, we investigate a well-observed QFP wave event associated with an M6.5-class flare and coronal mass ejection that occurred in active region (AR) 12371 on 2015 June 22 by combining multi-wavelength observations from SDO/AIA and HMI with data-inspired 3D MHD simulations. The QFP wave trains propagating at high speeds of 1140$-$1760 km~s$^{-1}$ are detected in the AIA 171 Å channel, following global EUV wave fronts visible at 171 and 193~Å traveling at considerably lower speeds of 300$-$510 km~s$^{-1}$. Wavelet analysis reveals consistent 2--4 minutes periodicities in both the QFPs and flare quasi-periodic pulsations (QPPs) observed in UV/EUV and hard X-ray emissions, suggesting a common origin likely linked to intermittent magnetic reconnection. Guided by these observations, we construct realistic 3D MHD models incorporating dense fan-loop structures and periodic drivers applied at different locations. The simulations reproduce the key characteristics of the observed wave trains. Comparison between cases with and without a coronal background (non-loop plasma emission) indicates that coronal density structuring significantly modifies the detected wave amplitudes and propagation patterns. Our results highlight the importance of realistic coronal magnetic configurations in modeling QFP dynamics and suggest that their observed association with fan loops in AIA 171 Å may represent a temperature-dependent visibility effect rather than a genuine confinement of the waves.

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Modeling the Excitation, Propagation and Damping of Quasi-Periodic Fast Magnetosonic Waves in Realistic Coronal Active Region Magnetic Field Structures

Quasi-periodic fast propagating magnetosonic waves (QFPs) were discovered in the solar corona in EUV since the launch of SDO spacecraft more than a decade ago. The QFP waves are associated with flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) providing information on flare pulsations as well as on the magnetic field by MHD wave seismology. Previous models of QFP waves used primarily idealized magnetic active region structures. However, more realistic active region numerical models are needed to improve the application of coronal seismology to observations of waves in coronal structures. Here, we extend the previous models by including realistic magnetic configuration based on an observed coronal active region in a case study using AR 11166 observed on March 10, 2011 by SDO/AIA, using potential field extrapolation of photospheric magnetic field with realistic gravitationally stratified density structure { with typical coronal temperature} in our resistive 3D MHD model. We aim at reproducing the observed QFPs properties, such as directionality, propagation, reflection, nonlinearity, and damping of these waves. We model various forms of excitation of QFPs through time dependent boundary conditions, and localized pulses at the base of the corona. We produce synthetic emission measure (EM) maps from the 3D MHD modeling results to facilitate comparison to EUV observations. We find that the present more realistic model provides better qualitative agreement with observations compared to previous idealized models, improving the study of QFP wave excitation, propagation and damping in coronal ARs, with potential applications to coronal seismology.

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Improved Tomographic Reconstruction of 3D Global Coronal Density from STEREO/COR1 Observations

Tomography is a powerful technique for recovering the three-dimensional (3D) density structure of the global solar corona. In this work, we present an improved tomography method by introducing radial weighting in the regularization term. Radial weighting provides balanced smoothing of density values across different heights, helping to recover finer structures at lower heights while also stabilizing the solution and preventing oscillatory artifacts at higher altitudes. We apply this technique to reconstruct the 3D electron density of Carrington Rotation (CR) 2098 using two weeks of polarized brightness (pB) observations from the inner coronagraph (COR1) onboard spacecraft-B of the twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO), where the radial weighting function is taken as the inverse intensity background, calculated by averaging all the pB images used. Comparisons between density distributions at various heights from the tomography and magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulations show good agreement. We find that radial weighting not only effectively corrects the over-smoothing effect near the inner boundary in reconstructions using second-order smoothing but also significantly improves reconstruction quality when using zeroth-order smoothing. Additionally, comparing reconstructions for CR 2091 from single-satellite data with that from multi-viewpoint data suggests that coronal evolution and dynamics may have a significant impact on the reconstructed density structures. This improved tomography method has been used to create a database of 3D densities for CRs 2052 to 2154, based on STEREO/COR1-B data, covering the period from 08 January 2007 to 17 September 2014.

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Observed Dispersive Properties of the Slow Magnetoacoustic Waves Propagating in Coronal Fan Loops above Sunspots

Recurrent and propagating intensity perturbations are frequently observed in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) channels along coronal fan loops above sunspots, and these perturbations are suggested to be slow magnetoacoustic waves. Numerous studies have been conducted to investigate their propagation speeds, damping, and excitation sources; however, there have been limited observational analyses on whether these waves are dispersive despite some theoretical studies. In this study, we apply cross-correlation analysis in the Fourier domain on slow magnetoacoustic waves using three different datasets: EUV intensity observed by SDO/AIA, differential emission measure (DEM) temperature maps, and Doppler velocities from Hinode/EIS spectrometer observations. The apparent phase velocities of the waves, which are the plane-of-sky component of the waves' phase velocities, are derived as functions of frequency for all the three datasets. It is found that the phase velocities show clear frequency dependency, with a general trend of increase with frequency, ranging from approximately 30 km/s around 3 mHz to about 80 km/s around 10 mHz. The frequency dependency of the phase velocities demonstrates that the slow magnetoacoustic waves in the coronal loops are dispersive. The dispersiveness of these waves can provide a useful tool for the diagnosis of physical conditions inside the coronal loops along which these waves travel.

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Exploring Standing and Reflected Slow-mode Waves in Flaring Coronal Loops: A Parametric Study Using 2.5D MHD Modeling

Recent observations of reflected propagating and standing slow-mode waves in hot flaring coronal loops have spurred our investigation into their underlying excitation and damping mechanisms. To understand these processes, we conduct 2.5D magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations using an arcade active region model that includes a hot and dense loop. Our simulations allow for in-depth parametric investigations complementing and expanding our previous 3D MHD modeling results. We excite these waves in two distinct models as motivated by observations from the SDO/AIA. Model 1 incorporates classical compressive viscosity coefficient, while Model 2 adopts a 10-times enhanced viscosity coefficient. We find that: (1) Our 2.5D MHD simulations reinforce previous conclusions derived from 1D and 3D MHD models that significantly enhanced viscosity is crucial for the rapid excitation of standing slow waves with damping times consistent with observations by Wang et al. (2015). (2) We uncover that nonlinearity in Model 1 delays the conversion of a reflected propagating wave into a standing wave. In contrast, Model 2 exhibits a much weak influence of nonlinearity. (3) Our results reveal that the transverse temperature structure holds more influence on wave behavior than the density structure. In Model 1, increased loop temperature contrast significantly enhances wave trapping within the structure, mitigating the impact of temperature-dependent viscous damping. Conversely, in Model 2, the impact of temperature structure on wave behavior weakens in comparison to the effect of viscosity. (4) Model 1 displays evident nonlinear coupling to the fast and kink magnetoacoustic waves and pronounced wave leakage into the corona. However, analyzing three observed wave events by SDO/AIA aligns with Model 2 predictions, providing further support for the substantial viscosity increase.

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Plasma heating and nanoflare caused by slow-mode wave in a coronal loop

We present a detailed analysis of a reflecting intensity perturbation in a large coronal loop that appeared as sloshing oscillation and lasted for at least one and a half periods. The perturbation is initiated by a microflare at one footpoint of the loop, propagates along the loop and is eventually reflected at the remote footpoint where significant brightenings are observed in all the AIA extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) channels. This unique observation provides us with the opportunity to better understand not only the thermal properties and damping mechanisms of the sloshing oscillation, but also the energy transfer at the remote footpoint. Based on differential emission measures (DEM) analysis and the technique of coronal seismology, we find that 1) the calculated local sound speed is consistent with the observed propagation speed of the perturbation during the oscillation, which is suggestive of a slow magnetoacoustic wave; 2) thermal conduction is the major damping mechanism of the wave but additional damping mechanism such as anomalous enhancement of compressive viscosity or wave leakage is also required to account for the rapid decay of the observed waves; 3) the wave produced a nanoflare at the remote footpoint, with a peak thermal energy of $\thicksim10^{24}-10^{25}$ erg. This work provides a consistent picture of the magnetoacoustic wave propagation and reflection in a coronal loop, and reports the first solid evidence of a wave-induced nanoflare. The results reveal new clues for further simulation studies and may help solving the coronal heating problem.

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Role of Non-Ideal Dissipation with Heating-Cooling Misbalance on the Phase Shifts of Standing Slow Magnetohydrodynamic Waves

We analyse the phase shifts of standing, slow magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves in solar coronal loops using a linear MHD model taking into account the role of thermal conductivity, compressive viscosity, radiative losses, and heating-cooling misbalance. We estimate the phase shifts in time and space of density and temperature perturbations with respect to velocity perturbations and also calculate the phase difference between density and temperature perturbations. The overall significance of compressive viscosity is found to be negligible for most of the loops considered in the study. For loops with high background density and/or low background temperature, the role of radiative losses (with heating-cooling misbalance) is found to be more significant. Also the effect of heating-cooling misbalance with a temperature- and density-dependent heating function is found to be more significant in the case of longer loop lengths ($L=500$\, Mm). We derived a general expression for the polytropic index [$γ_{\rm eff}$] and found that under linear MHD the effect of compressive viscosity on polytropic index is negligible. The radiative losses with constant heating lead to a monotonic increase of $γ_{\rm eff}$ with increasing density whereas the consideration of an assumed heating function [$H(ρ,T) \propto ρ^{a}T^{b}$, where $a=-0.5$ and $b=-3$] makes the $γ_{\rm eff}$ peak at a certain loop density. We also explored the role of different heating functions by varying the free parameters $a$ and $b$ for a fixed loop of $ρ_0 = 10^{-11}$\, kg $\text{m}^{-3}$, $T_0 = 6.3$\, MK and loop length $L= 180$\, Mm. We find that the consideration of different heating functions [$H(ρ,T)$] leads to a significant variation in the phase difference between density and temperature perturbations; however, the polytropic index remains close to a value of 1.66.

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Excitation and Damping of Slow Magnetosonic Waves in Flaring Hot Coronal Loops: Effects of Compressive Viscosity

Slow magnetosonic waves associated with flares were observed in coronal loops by SOHO/SUMER, SDO/AIA in various EUV bandpasses, and other instruments. The excitation and damping of slow magnetosonic waves provides information on the magnetic, temperature, and density structure of the loops. Recently, it was found using 1.5D models that the thermal conduction is suppressed and compressive viscosity is enhanced in hot (T>6 MK) flaring coronal loops. We model the excitation and dissipation of slow magnetosonic waves in hot coronal loops with realistic magnetic geometry, enhanced density, and temperature (compared to background corona) guided by EUV observations using 3D MHD visco-resistive model. The effects of compressive viscosity tensor component along the magnetic field are included with classical and enhanced viscosity coefficient values for the first time in 3D MHD coronal loop model. The waves are excited by a velocity pulse at the footpoint of the loop at coronal lower boundary. The modeling results demonstrate the excitation of the slow magnetosonic waves and nonlinear coupling to other wave modes, such as the kink and fast magnetosonic. We find significant leakage of the waves from the hot coronal loops with small effect of viscous dissipation in cooler (6MK) loops, and more significant effects of viscous dissipation in hotter (10.5MK) coronal loops. Our results demonstrate that nonlinear 3D MHD models are required to fully account for various wave couplings, damping, standing wave formation, and viscous dissipation in hot flaring coronal loops. Our viscous 3D MHD code provides a new tool for improved coronal seismology.

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Effect of Thermal Conductivity, Compressive Viscosity and Radiative Cooling on the Phase Shift of Propagating Slow Waves with and without Heating-Cooling Imbalance

We study phase shifts of the propagating slow waves in coronal loops invoking the effects of thermal conductivity, compressive viscosity, radiative losses and heating-cooling imbalance. We derive a general dispersion relation and solve it to determine phase shifts of density and temperature perturbations relative to the velocity and their dependence on equilibrium parameters ($ρ_0$, $T_0$). We estimate phase difference ($Δϕ$) between density and temperature perturbations and its dependence on $ρ_0$ and $T_0$. The effect of viscosity on the phase shifts was found negligible. The role of radiative losses along with h/c imbalance for chosen specific heating function ($H(ρ, T) \propto ρ^{-0.5} T^{-3}$) in determining phase shifts, is found to be significant for the high density and low temperature loops. The h/c imbalance can increase the phase difference ($Δϕ\approx 140^\circ$) for low temperature loops compared to the constant heating case ($Δϕ\approx 30^\circ$). We derive a general expression for the polytropic index. We find that in the presence of thermal conduction alone, the polytropic index remains close to its classical value for all the considered $ρ_0$ and $T_0$. However, it reduces to a value $1.2$ when loop density is decreased by an order of magnitude compared to its normal coronal value. We find that the inclusion of radiative losses, with or without h/c imbalance, cannot explain the observed polytropic index. The thermal ratio ($d$) needs to be enhanced by an order of magnitude, in order to explain its observed value $1.1 \pm 0.02$ in the solar loops. We also explore the role of different heating functions for typical coronal parameters and found that although the polytropic index remains close to its classical value, the phase difference is highly dependent on the form of heating function (The abstract is restructured for arxiv).

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Slow-Mode Magnetoacoustic Waves in Coronal Loops

Rapidly decaying long-period oscillations often occur in hot coronal loops of active regions associated with small (or micro-) flares. This kind of wave activity was first discovered with the SOHO/SUMER spectrometer from Doppler velocity measurements of hot emission lines, thus also often called "SUMER" oscillations. They were mainly interpreted as global (or fundamental mode) standing slow magnetoacoustic waves. In addition, increasing evidence has suggested that the decaying harmonic type of pulsations detected in light curves of solar and stellar flares are likely caused by standing slow-mode waves. The study of slow magnetoacoustic waves in coronal loops has become a topic of particular interest in connection with coronal seismology. We review recent results from SDO/AIA and Hinode/XRT observations that have detected both standing and reflected intensity oscillations in hot flaring loops showing the physical properties (e.g., oscillation periods, decay times, and triggers) in accord with the SUMER oscillations. We also review recent advances in theory and numerical modeling of slow-mode waves focusing on the wave excitation and damping mechanisms. MHD simulations in 1D, 2D and 3D have been dedicated to understanding the physical conditions for the generation of a reflected propagating or a standing wave by impulsive heating. Various damping mechanisms and their analysis methods are summarized. Calculations based on linear theory suggest that the non-ideal MHD effects such as thermal conduction, compressive viscosity, and optically thin radiation may dominate in damping of slow-mode waves in coronal loops of different physical conditions. Finally, an overview is given of several important seismological applications such as determination of transport coefficients and heating function.

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Torsional Alfvénic Oscillations Discovered in the Magnetic Free Energy During Solar Flares

We report the discovery of torsional Alfvénic oscillations in solar flares, which modulate the time evolution of the magnetic free energy $E_f(t)$, while the magnetic potential energy $E_p(t)$ is uncorrelated, and the nonpotential energy varies as $E_{np}(t) = E_p + E_f(t)$. The mean observed time period of the torsional oscillations is $P_{obs}=15.1 \pm 3.9$ min, the mean field line length is $L=135\pm35$ Mm, and the mean phase speed is $v_{phase} =315 \pm 120$ km s$^{-1}$, which we interpret as torsional Alfvénic waves in flare loops with enhanced electron densities. Most of the torsional oscillations are found to be decay-less, but exhibit a positive or negative trend in the evolution of the free energy, indicating new emerging flux (if positive), magnetic cancellation, or flare energy dissipation (if negative). The time evolution of the free energy has been calculated in this study with the {\sl Vertical-Current Approximation (Version 4) Nonlinear Force-Free Field (VCA4-NLFFF)} code, which incorporates automatically detected coronal loops in the solution and bypasses the non-forcefreeness of the photospheric boundary condition, in contrast to traditional NLFFF codes.

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Determination of transport coefficients by coronal seismology of flare-induced slow-mode waves: Numerical parametric study of 1D loop model

Recent studies of a flaring loop oscillation event on 2013 December 28 observed by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) have revealed the suppression of thermal conduction and significant enhancement of compressive viscosity in hot ($\sim$10 MK) plasma. In this study we aim at developing a new coronal seismology method for determining the transport coefficients based on a parametric study of wave properties using a 1D nonlinear MHD loop model in combination with the linear theory. The simulations suggest a two-step scheme: we first determine the effective thermal conduction coefficient from the observed phase shift between temperature and density perturbations as this physical parameter is insensitive to the unknown viscosity; then from the loop model with the obtained thermal conduction coefficient, we determine the effective viscosity coefficient from the observed decay time using the parametric modeling. With this new seismology technique we are able to quantify the suppression of thermal conductivity by a factor of about 3 and the enhancement of viscosity coefficient by a factor of 10 in the studied flaring loop. Using the loop model with these refined transport coefficients, we study the excitation of slow magnetoacoustic waves by launching a flow pulse from one footpoint. The simulation can self-consistently produce the fundamental standing wave on a timescale in agreement with the observation.

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Direct observation of high-speed plasma outflows produced by magnetic reconnection in solar impulsive events

Spectroscopic observations of a solar limb flare recorded by SUMER on SOHO reveal, for the first time, hot fast magnetic reconnection outflows in the corona. As the reconnection site rises across the SUMER spectrometer slit, significant blue- and red-shift signatures are observed in sequence in the Fe XIX line, reflecting upflows and downflows of hot plasma jets, respectively. With the projection effect corrected, the measured outflow speed is between 900-3500 km/s, consistent with theoretical predictions of the Alfvenic outflows in magnetic reconnection region in solar impulsive events. Based on theoretic models, the magnetic field strength near the reconnection region is estimated to be 19-37 Gauss.

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Effect of transport coefficients on excitation of flare-induced standing slow-mode waves in coronal loops

Standing slow-mode waves have been recently observed in flaring loops by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). By means of the coronal seismology technique transport coefficients in hot ($\sim$10 MK) plasma were determined by Wang et al.(2015, Paper I), revealing that thermal conductivity is nearly suppressed and compressive viscosity is enhanced by more than an order of magnitude. In this study we use 1D nonlinear MHD simulations to validate the predicted results from the linear theory and investigate the standing slow-mode wave excitation mechanism. We first explore the wave trigger based on the magnetic field extrapolation and flare emission features. Using a flow pulse driven at one footpoint we simulate the wave excitation in two types of loop models: model 1 with the classical transport coefficients and model 2 with the seismology-determined transport coefficients. We find that model 2 can form the standing wave pattern (within about one period) from initial propagating disturbances much faster than model 1, in better agreement with the observations. Simulations of the harmonic waves and the Fourier decomposition analysis show that the scaling law between damping time ($τ$) and wave period ($P$) follows $τ\propto{P^2}$ in model 2, while $τ\propto{P}$ in model 1. This indicates that the largely enhanced viscosity efficiently increases the dissipation of higher harmonic components, favoring the quick formation of the fundamental standing mode. Our study suggests that observational constraints on the transport coefficients are important in understanding both, the wave excitation and damping mechanisms.

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Waves in Solar Coronal Loops

Recent observations have revealed the ubiquitous presence of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves and oscillations in the solar corona. The aim of this review is to present recent progress in the observational study of four types of wave (or oscillation) phenomena mainly occurring in active region coronal loops, including (i) flare-induced slow mode oscillations, (ii) fast kink mode oscillations, (iii) propagating slow magnetoacoustic waves, and (iv) ubiquitous propagating kink (Alfvenic) waves. This review not only comprehensively outlines various aspects of these waves and coronal seismology, but also highlights the topics that are newly emerging or hotly debated, thus can provide readers a useful guidance on further studies of their interested topics.

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Slow-Mode Oscillations of Hot Loops Excited at Flaring Footpoints

The analysis of a hot loop oscillation event using SOHO/SUMER, GOES/SXI, and RHESSI observations is presented. Damped Doppler shift oscillations were detected in the Fe XIX line by SUMER, and interpreted as a fundamental standing slow mode. The evolution of soft X-ray emission from GOES/SXI and hard X-ray sources from RHESSI suggests that the oscillations of a large loop are triggered by a small flare, which may be produced by interaction (local reconnection) of this large loop with a small loop at its footpoint. This study provides clear evidence supporting our early conjecture that the slow-mode standing waves in hot coronal loops are excited by impulsive heating (small or microflares) at the loop's footpoint.

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Variation of Coronal Activity from the Minimum to Maximum of Solar Cycle 24 using Three Dimensional Coronal Electron Density Reconstructions from STEREO/COR1

Three dimensional electron density distributions in the solar corona are reconstructed for 100 Carrington Rotations (CR 2054$-$2153) during 2007/03$-$2014/08 using the spherically symmetric method from polarized white-light observations with the STEREO/COR1. These three-dimensional electron density distributions are validated by comparison with similar density models derived using other methods such as tomography and a MHD model as well as using data from SOHO/LASCO-C2. Uncertainties in the estimated total mass of the global corona are analyzed based on differences between the density distributions for COR1-A and -B. Long-term variations of coronal activity in terms of the global and hemispheric average electron densities (equivalent to the total coronal mass) reveal a hemispheric asymmetry during the rising phase of Solar Cycle 24, with the northern hemisphere leading the southern hemisphere by a phase shift of 7$-$9 months. Using 14-CR (~13-month) running averages, the amplitudes of the variation in average electron density between Cycle 24 maximum and Cycle 23/24 minimum (called the modulation factors) are found to be in the range of 1.6$-$4.3. These modulation factors are latitudinally dependent, being largest in polar regions and smallest in the equatorial region. These modulation factors also show a hemispheric asymmetry, being somewhat larger in the southern hemisphere. The wavelet analysis shows that the short-term quasi-periodic oscillations during the rising and maximum phases of Cycle 24 have a dominant period of 7$-$8 months. In addition, it is found that the radial distribution of mean electron density for streamers at Cycle 24 maximum is only slightly larger (by ~30%) than at cycle minimum.

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Excitation of flare-induced waves in coronal loops and the effects of radiative cooling

EUV imaging observations from several space missions (SOHO/EIT, TRACE, and SDO/AIA) have revealed a presence of propagating intensity disturbances in solar coronal loops. These disturbances are typically interpreted as slow magnetoacoustic waves. Recent spectroscopic observations with Hinode/EIS of active region loops, however, revealed that the propagating intensity disturbances are associated with intermittent plasma upflows (or jets) at the footpoints which are presumably generated by magnetic reconnection. For this reason, whether these disturbances are waves or periodic flows is still being studied. This study is aimed at understanding the physical properties of observed disturbances by investigating the excitation of waves by hot plasma injections from below and the evolution of flows and wave propagation along the loop. We expand our previous studies based on isothermal 3D MHD models of active region to a more realistic model that includes full energy equation accounting for effects of radiative losses. Computations are initialized with an equilibrium state of a model active region using potential (dipole) magnetic field, gravitationally stratified density and temperature obtained from polytropic equation of state. We model an impulsive injection of hot plasma into the steady plasma outflow along the loops of different temperature, warm ($\sim$1 MK) and hot ($\sim$6 MK). The simulations show that hot jets launched at the coronal base excite slow magnetoacoustic waves that propagate along the loops to the high corona, while the injected hot flows decelerates rapidly with heights. The simulated results support that the observed coronal disturbances are mainly the wave features. We also find that the effect of radiative cooling on the damping of slow-mode waves in 1-6 MK coronal loops is small, in agreement with the previous conclusion based on 1D MHD models.

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