Three-dimensional coronal slow modes: toward three-dimensional seismology

Marsh, M. S., Walsh, Robert William orcid iconORCID: 0000-0002-1025-9863 and Plunkett, S. (2009) Three-dimensional coronal slow modes: toward three-dimensional seismology. The Astrophysical Journal, 697 (2). pp. 1674-1680. ISSN 0004-637X

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/697/2/1674

Abstract

On 2008 January 10, the twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) A and B spacecraft conducted a high time cadence study of the solar corona with the Extreme UltraViolet Imager (EUVI) instruments with the aim of investigating coronal dynamics. Observations of the three-dimensional propagation of waves within active region coronal loops and a measurement of the true coronal slow mode speed are obtained. Intensity oscillations with a period of approximately 12 minutes are observed to propagate outwards from the base of a loop system, consistent with the slow magnetoacoustic mode. A novel analysis technique is applied to measure the wave phase velocity in the observations of the A and B spacecraft. These stereoscopic observations are used to infer the three-dimensional velocity vector of the wave propagation, with an inclination of 37 +- 6 deg to the local normal and a magnitude of 132 +- 9 and 132 +- 11 km s-1, giving the first measurement of the true coronal longitudinal slow mode speed, and an inferred temperature of 0.84 +- 12 MK and 0.84 +- 15 MK.


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