Skip to main content

Doppler-shift oscillations in the H I Lyα coronal emission line: spectroscopic signature of propagating kink waves?

Article

Publications

Overview

Abstract

  • We report the first detection of long-period, slowly decaying Doppler-shift oscillations in the H i Lyα (1215.67 Å) coronal emission line with the Ultraviolet Coronagraph Spectrometer (UVCS) onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) satellite. The UV spectral data were collected at 1.43 R above the eastern limb of the Sun during a special high-cadence sit-and-stare observation on 1997 December 14. Time-series analyses with different spectral techniques clearly show highly significant Doppler-shift oscillations in a portion with a size of 154'' of the UVCS slit that lasted for several cycles. A period of P = 14.3 ± 0.4 min was established with a confidence of better than 99.9% in the Lomb-Scargle periodogram. On average, the Doppler-shift amplitude of 3.7 ± 0.7 km s-1 was estimated for the most significant oscillations, roughly corresponding to a displacement of 800 ± 150 km. The origin of the regular H i Lyα Doppler-shift oscillations is most probably due to the excitation of propagating fast magnetoacoustic kink waves along a narrow, jet-like ejection observed higher up in the white-light corona. However, different mechanisms, such as low-amplitude coherent kink oscillations of a bundle of loops along the line of sight or quasi-periodic outflows caused by oscillatory magnetic reconnection in the low corona cannot be ruled out.

Publication Date

  • 2015

Authors