Properties of local oscillations in the lower sunspot atmosphere

TL;DR

This study investigates wave processes in a sunspot region using high-resolution observations, revealing the spatial structure and dynamics of oscillation sources across different atmospheric layers and their relation to magnetic field configurations.

Contribution

First detailed spatial mapping of oscillation sources in a sunspot across multiple atmospheric layers using pixelized wavelet filtering technique.

Findings

Oscillation sources vary from dots to filaments from umbra to penumbra.

Distinct harmonic sources are spatially separated with no global correlation.

Presence of broadband oscillations in the entire umbra at the photosphere.

Abstract

We present a study of wave processes in the sunspot region NOAA 12670 on 2017 August 10 observed by the Goode Solar Telescope in the TiO 7057 A and Ha 6563 A spectral lines. To study the distribution of power oscillations and their dynamics, we applied the pixelized wavelet filtering (PWF) technique. For the first time, the spatial structure of oscillation sources as a footpoints of fine magnetic tubes, anchored in the sunspot umbra was obtained. We found that at the chromosphere level, emission variation is a combination of numerous independent oscillations located in the sources with small angular size. Their spatial shape varies from dots and cellular in the umbra to filaments in the penumbra. Each narrow spectrum harmonic corresponds to its source, without global correlation among themselves. There is weak background as low-frequency oscillation sources are distributed on whole umbra. At the photosphere level we found regions with co-phased broadband oscillations of the whole umbra. Their spectrum includes the ~3-min harmonic, whose maximal value is localized in umbral dots (UDs), and the low frequency part near the ~5-min period. It is shown that the oscillation sources are displaced at different heights with increasing angular size. We assume that the observed spatial distribution of wave sources indicates the existence a slow subphotosphere resonator with a vertical magnetic field in the umbra and wave cutoff frequency due to inclination of the magnetic field line in the penumbra.