Systematic variations of macrospicule properties observed by SDO/AIA over half a decade

TL;DR

This study analyzes 5.5 years of solar macrospicule data from SDO/AIA, revealing long-term oscillations, hemispheric asymmetries, and correlations in their physical properties, enhancing understanding of solar atmospheric dynamics.

Contribution

It provides the first extensive statistical database of macrospicule properties over multiple years, uncovering wave-like oscillations and hemispheric asymmetries linked to solar dynamo processes.

Findings

Long-term oscillations in macrospicule properties with a period just under two years.

Significant asymmetry in macrospicule distribution between northern and southern hemispheres.

Strong correlations among macrospicule height, length, speed, and width.

Abstract

Macrospicules (MS) are localised small-scale jet-like phenomena in the solar atmosphere, which have the potential to transport considerable amount of momentum and energy from the lower solar atmospheric regions to the Transition Region and the low corona. A detailed statistical analysis of their temporal behaviour and spatial properties is carried out in this work. By means of state-of-the-art spatial and temporal resolution observations, yielded by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) of Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), we constructed a database covering a 5.5-year long period, containing 301 macrospicules that occurred between June 2010 and December 2015 detected at 30.4 nm wavelength. Here, we report the long-term variation of the height, length, average speed and width of MS in Coronal Holes and Quiet Sun areas both in the northern and southern hemisphere of the Sun. This new database helps to refine our knowledge about the physical properties of MS. Cross-correlation of these properties show a relatively strong correlation, but not always a dominant one. However, a more detailed analysis indicates a wave-like signature in the behaviour of MS properties in time. The period of these long-term oscillatory behaviours are just under two years. Also, in terms of solar north/south hemispheres, a strong asymmetry was found in the spatial distribution of MS properties, which may be accounted for the solar dynamo. This latter feature may then indicate a strong and rather intrinsic link between global internal and local atmospheric phenomena in the Sun.