Solar transition region in the quiet Sun and active regions

TL;DR

This paper investigates the solar transition region's dynamics, energy loss mechanisms, and magnetic structures in quiet Sun, active regions, and sunspots, revealing new insights into plasma flows, line asymmetries, and regional differences.

Contribution

It provides detailed analysis of TR plasma flows, line profile asymmetries, and magnetic structure variations across different solar regions, highlighting new observational patterns.

Findings

Up-flows in the upper TR suggest mass supply to coronal loops.

Ly-alpha emission dominates energy loss in the lower TR.

Differences in Ly-alpha peak separation reflect magnetic structure variations.

Abstract

The solar transition region (TR), in which above the photosphere the tempera- ture increases rapidly and the density drops dramatically, is believed to play an important role in coronal heating and solar wind acceleration. Long-lasting up-flows are present in the upper TR and interpreted as signatures of mass supply to large coronal loops in the quiet Sun. Coronal bright points (BPs) are local heating phenomena and we found a different Doppler-shift pattern at TR and coronal temperatures in one BP, which might be related to the twisted loop system. The dominant energy loss in the lower TR is the Ly-alpha emission. It has been found that most Ly-alpha radiance profiles are stronger in the blue peak, an asymmetry opposite to higher order Lyman lines. This asymmetry is stronger when the downflow in the middle TR is stronger, indicating that the TR flows play an important role in the line formation process. The peak separation of Ly-alpha is found to be larger in coronal holes than in the quiet Sun, reflecting the different magnetic structures and radiation fields between the two regions. The Lyman line profiles are found to be not reversed in sunspot plume and umbra regions, while they are obviously reversed in the surrounding plage region. At TR temperatures, the densities of the sunspot plume and umbra are a factor of 10 lower than of the plage, indicating that the sunspot plasma emitting at TR temperatures is higher and possibly more extended above sunspots than above the plage region.