The transverse and rotational motions of magnetohydrodynamic kink waves in the solar atmosphere
- Centre for Mathematical Plasma Astrophysics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200B, bus 2400, B-3001 Herverlee (Belgium)
- Departament de Física, Universitat de les Illes Balears, E-07122 Palma de Mallorca (Spain)
Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) kink waves have now been observed to be ubiquitous throughout the solar atmosphere. With modern instruments, they have now been detected in the chromosphere, interface region, and corona. The key purpose of this paper is to show that kink waves do not only involve purely transverse motions of solar magnetic flux tubes, but the velocity field is a spatially and temporally varying sum of both transverse and rotational motion. Taking this fact into account is particularly important for the accurate interpretation of varying Doppler velocity profiles across oscillating structures such as spicules. It has now been shown that, as well as bulk transverse motions, spicules have omnipresent rotational motions. Here we emphasize that caution should be used before interpreting the particular MHD wave mode/s responsible for these rotational motions. The rotational motions are not necessarily signatures of the classic axisymmetric torsional Alfvén wave alone, because kink motion itself can also contribute substantially to varying Doppler velocity profiles observed across these structures. In this paper, the displacement field of the kink wave is demonstrated to be a sum of its transverse and rotational components, both for a flux tube with a discontinuous density profile at its boundary, and one with a more realistic density continuum between the internal and external plasma. Furthermore, the Doppler velocity profile of the kink wave is forward modeled to demonstrate that, depending on the line of sight, it can either be quite distinct or very similar to that expected from a torsional Alfvén wave.
- OSTI ID:
- 22356724
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 788, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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