First Imaging Observation of Standing Slow Wave in Coronal Fan loops

TL;DR

This study reports the first observation of standing slow magnetoacoustic waves in coronal fan loops triggered by distant solar flares, providing insights into wave dynamics in the solar corona.

Contribution

It presents the first detection of standing slow waves in non-flaring coronal fan loops, characterized by specific oscillation periods and phase speeds.

Findings

Oscillations are out of phase at loop ends.

Oscillation amplitude varies along the loop.

Oscillation period is approximately 27 minutes.

Abstract

We observe intensity oscillations along coronal fan loops associated with the active region AR 11428. The intensity oscillations were triggered by blast waves which were generated due to X-class flares in the distant active region AR 11429. To characterise the nature of oscillations, we created time-distance maps along the fan loops and noted that the intensity oscillations at two ends of the loops were out of phase. As we move along the fan loop, the amplitude of the oscillations first decreased and then increased. The out-of-phase nature together with the amplitude variation along the loop implies that these oscillations are very likely to be standing waves. The period of the oscillations are estimated to be $\sim$27 min, damping time to be $\sim$45 min and phase velocity projected in the plane of sky $\sim$ 65-83 km s$^{-1}$. The projected phase speeds were in the range of acoustic speed of coronal plasma at about 0.6 MK which further indicates that these are slow waves. To best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the existence of the standing slow waves in non-flaring fan loops.