Published September 1, 2011 | Version v1
Journal article

OBSERVATIONS OF FIVE-MINUTE SOLAR OSCILLATIONS IN THE CORONA USING THE EXTREME ULTRAVIOLET SPECTROPHOTOMETER (ESP) ON BOARD THE SOLAR DYNAMICS OBSERVATORY EXTREME ULTRAVIOLET VARIABILITY EXPERIMENT (SDO/EVE)

  • 1. Space Sciences Center, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089 (United States)
  • 2. W. W. Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 (United States)
  • 3. Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80301 (United States)

Description

We report on the detection of oscillations in the corona in the frequency range corresponding to five-minute acoustic modes of the Sun. The oscillations have been observed using soft X-ray measurements from the Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrophotometer (ESP) of the Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory. The ESP zeroth-order channel observes the Sun as a star without spatial resolution in the wavelength range of 0.1-7.0 nm (the energy range is 0.18-12.4 keV). The amplitude spectrum of the oscillations calculated from six-day time series shows a significant increase in the frequency range of 2-4 mHz. We interpret this increase as a response of the corona to solar acoustic (p) modes and attempt to identify p-mode frequencies among the strongest peaks. Due to strong variability of the amplitudes and frequencies of the five-minute oscillations in the corona, we study how the spectrum from two adjacent six-day time series combined together affects the number of peaks associated with the p-mode frequencies and their amplitudes. This study shows that five-minute oscillations of the Sun can be observed in the corona in variations of the soft X-ray emission. Further investigations of these oscillations may improve our understanding of the interaction of the oscillation modes with the solar atmosphere, and the interior-corona coupling, in general.

Availability note (English)

Available from http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/738/1/L7

Additional details

Identifiers

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Astrophysical Journal Letters
Journal Volume
738
Journal Issue
1
Journal Page Range
[5 p.]
ISSN
2041-8205