Imaging observation of quasi-periodic disturbances' amplitudes increasing with height in the polar region of the solar corona

At present, there have been few extreme ultraviolet (EUV) imaging observations of spatial variations of the density perturbations due to the slow magnetoacoustic waves (SMWs) propagating along the solar coronal magnetic fields. In this paper, we present such observations taken from the polar region of the corona with the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory and investigate the amplitude of quasi-periodic propagating disturbances that increase with height in the lower corona (0-9 Mm over the solar limb). We statistically determined the following parameters associated with the disturbances: pressure scale height, period, and wavelength in AIA 171 Å, 193 Å, and 211 Å channels. The scale height and wavelength are dependent of temperature, while the period is independent of temperature. The acoustic velocities inferred from the scale height highly correlate with the ratios of wavelength to period, i.e., phase speeds. They provide evidence that the propagating disturbances in the lower corona are likely SMWs and the spatial variations in EUV intensity in the polar region likely reflects the density compressional effect by the propagating SMWs.