Multi-layered Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability in the Solar Corona

TL;DR

This study observes multi-layered Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities in the solar corona, revealing how cold and hot plasma interactions can trigger heating, with implications for understanding plasma dynamics and energy transfer.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed multi-thermal observation of KH instability in the solar corona, highlighting the role of cold plasma layers in energy exchange and heating processes.

Findings

KH vortices were tracked and their speeds measured.

KH instability coincided with plasma heating events.

Cold plasma layers interact with hot plasma, influencing energy transfer.

Abstract

The Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) instability is commonly found in many astrophysical, laboratory, and space plasmas. It could mix plasma components of different properties and convert dynamic fluid energy from large scale structure to smaller ones. In this study, we combined the ground-based New Vacuum Solar Telescope (NVST) and the Solar Dynamic Observatories (SDO) / Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) to observe the plasma dynamics associated with active region 12673 on 09 September 2017. In this multi-temperature view, we identified three adjacent layers of plasma flowing at different speeds, and detected KH instabilities at their interfaces. We could unambiguously track a typical KH vortex and measure its motion. We found that the speed of this vortex suddenly tripled at a certain stage. This acceleration was synchronized with the enhancements in emission measure and average intensity of the 193 \AA{} data. We interpret this as evidence that KH instability triggers plasma heating. The intriguing feature in this event is that the KH instability observed in the NVST channel was nearly complementary to that in the AIA 193 \AA{}. Such a multi-thermal energy exchange process is easily overlooked in previous studies, as the cold plasma component is usually not visible in the extreme ultraviolet channels that are only sensitive to high temperature plasma emissions. Our finding indicates that embedded cold layers could interact with hot plasma as invisible matters. We speculate that this process could occur at a variety of length scales and could contribute to plasma heating.