A persistent quiet-Sun small-scale tornado III. Waves

TL;DR

This study analyzes wave modes within a persistent quiet-Sun vortex flow, revealing the presence of upward propagating Alfvenic waves, kink waves, and torsional waves, and explores their potential role in solar atmospheric energy transfer.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive phase difference analysis of wave modes within a solar vortex flow, enhancing understanding of their nature and dynamics.

Findings

Detection of upward propagating Alfvenic waves with speeds of 20-30 km/s

Identification of dominant fast kink wave modes

Evidence of standing wave patterns from wave reflections

Abstract

Vortex flows can foster a variety of wave modes. A recent oscillatory analysis of a persistent 1.7 h vortex flow with a significant substructure has suggested the existence of various types of waves within it. We investigate the nature and characteristics of waves within this quiet-Sun vortex flow to better understand its physics and dynamics. We used a cross-wavelet spectral analysis between pairs of Ha and Ca II 8542 intensity time series at different wavelengths and, hence, atmospheric heights, acquired with CRISP/SST, as well as the derived Ha Doppler velocity and full width at half maximum (FWHM) time series. We constructed halftone frequency-phase difference plots and investigated the existence and propagation characteristics of different wave modes. Our analysis suggests the existence of upwards propagating Alfvenic type waves with phase speeds of ~20-30 km/s. The dominant wave mode seems to be the fast kink wave mode; however, our analysis also suggests the existence of localised Alfvenic torsional waves related to the dynamics of individual chromospheric swirls that characterise the substructure of the vortex flow. The Ha V-I phase difference analysis seems to imply the existence of a standing wave pattern possibly arising from the interference of upwards propagating kink waves with downwards propagating ones that are reflected at the transition region or the corona. Moreover, the results provide further evidence that the central chromospheric swirl drives the dynamics of the vortex flow. This is the first exhaustive phase difference analysis within a vortex flow that explores the nature and dynamics of different wave modes within it. The questions, however, of whether, and how, the dissipation of the derived wave modes occurs and if vortex flows ultimately play a role in the energy budget of the upper layers of the solar atmosphere remain open.