Quadrature Observations of Wave and Non-Wave Components and Their Decoupling in an Extreme-Ultraviolet Wave Event

TL;DR

This study uses quadrature observations from STEREO and SDO to analyze an EUV wave event, revealing two distinct components with different physical natures and behaviors, including a non-wave CME component and a fast-mode MHD wave.

Contribution

It provides detailed observational evidence distinguishing between a non-wave CME-related front and a true fast-mode MHD wave in an EUV wave event.

Findings

Primary front is associated with CME and field-line stretching.

Secondary front is likely a fast-mode MHD wave.

Transverse prominence oscillations are triggered by the secondary front.

Abstract

We report quadrature observations of an extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) wave event on 2011 January 27 obtained by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUVI) onboard \emph{Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory} (\emph{STEREO}), and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) onboard the \emph{Solar Dynamics Observatory} (\emph{SDO}). Two components are revealed in the EUV wave event. A primary front is launched with an initial speed of $\sim$440 km s$^{-1}$. It appears significant emission enhancement in the hotter channel but deep emission reduction in the cooler channel. When the primary front encounters a large coronal loop system and slows down, a secondary much fainter front emanates from the primary front with a relatively higher starting speed of $\sim$550 km s$^{-1}$. Afterwards the two fronts propagate independently with increasing separation. The primary front finally stops at a magnetic separatrix, while the secondary front travels farther before it fades out. In addition, upon the arrival of the secondary front, transverse oscillations of a prominence are triggered. We suggest that the two components are of different natures. The primary front belongs to a non-wave coronal mass ejection (CME) component, which can be reasonably explained with the field-line stretching model. The multi-temperature behavior may be caused by considerable heating due to the nonlinear adiabatic compression on the CME frontal loop. For the secondary front, most probably it is a linear fast-mode magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) wave that propagates through a medium of the typical coronal temperature. X-ray and radio data provide us with complementary evidence in support of the above scenario.