Dark jets in solar coronal holes

TL;DR

Dark jets are a newly identified solar feature in coronal holes, characterized by high velocities but low visibility in imaging, suggesting they are a significant but previously overlooked component of solar dynamics.

Contribution

This study introduces the concept of dark jets in solar coronal holes, revealing their properties and prevalence, which were not previously documented.

Findings

Dark jets show significant blueshifts with velocities up to 107 km/s.

They are as common as regular coronal hole jets but have much lower mass flux.

Dark jets are often invisible in standard imaging but detectable via spectroscopic velocity maps.

Abstract

A new solar feature termed a dark jet is identified from observations of an extended solar coronal hole that was continuously monitored for over 44 hours by the EUV Imaging Spectrometer on board the Hinode spacecraft in 2011 February 8-10. Line-of-sight velocity maps derived from the coronal Fe XII $\lambda$195.12 emission line, formed at 1.5 MK, revealed a number of large-scale, jet-like structures that showed significant blueshifts. The structures had either weak or no intensity signal in 193 A filter images from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory, suggesting that the jets are essentially invisible to imaging instruments. The dark jets are rooted in bright points and occur both within the coronal hole and at the quiet Sun-coronal hole boundary. They exhibit a wide range of shapes, from narrow columns to fan-shaped structures, and sometimes multiple jets are seen close together. A detailed study of one dark jet showed line-of-sight speeds increasing along the jet axis from 52 to 107 km s$^{-1}$ and a temperature of 1.2-1.3 MK. The low intensity of the jet was due either to a small filling factor of 2% or to a curtain-like morphology. From the HOP 177 sample, dark jets are as common as regular coronal hole jets, but their low intensity suggests a mass flux around two orders of magnitude lower.