Simultaneous Observations of a Large-Scale Wave Event in the Solar Atmosphere: From Photosphere to Corona

TL;DR

This study reports the first simultaneous multi-layer observation of a large-scale solar wave, revealing its evolution from the photosphere to the corona, and identifies it as a fast magnetosonic shock driven by a coronal mass ejection.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive multi-height observation of a large-scale solar wave, linking wave dynamics across different atmospheric layers and identifying its shock nature.

Findings

Wave propagated at 605 km/s with significant deceleration.

Wave reflected by open magnetic field regions.

Associated with a type-II radio burst indicating shock presence.

Abstract

For the first time, we report a large-scale wave that was observed simultaneously in the photosphere, chromosphere, transition region and low corona layers of the solar atmosphere. Using the high temporal and high spatial resolution observations taken by the Solar Magnetic Activity Research Telescope at Hida Observatory and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) onboard Solar Dynamic Observatory, we find that the wave evolved synchronously at different heights of the solar atmosphere, and it propagated at a speed of 605 km/s and showed a significant deceleration (-424 m/s2) in the extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) observations. During the initial stage, the wave speed in the EUV observations was 1000 km/s, similar to those measured from the AIA 1700 {\AA} (967 km/s) and 1600 {\AA} (893 km/s) observations. The wave was reflected by a remote region with open fields, and a slower wave-like feature at a speed of 220 km/s was also identified following the primary fast wave. In addition, a type-II radio burst was observed to be associated with the wave. We conclude that this wave should be a fast magnetosonic shock wave, which was firstly driven by the associated coronal mass ejection and then propagated freely in the corona. As the shock wave propagated, its legs swept the solar surface and thereby resulted in the wave signatures observed in the lower layers of the solar atmosphere. The slower wave-like structure following the primary wave was probably caused by the reconfiguration of the low coronal magnetic fields, as predicted in the field-line stretching model.