Evidence for Parameteric Decay Instability in the Lower Solar Atmosphere

TL;DR

This study provides the first observational evidence of parametric decay instability in the lower solar atmosphere, revealing interactions between sound and Alfvén waves through spectral analysis of IRIS data.

Contribution

It presents the first direct evidence of PDI in the lower solar atmosphere, linking spectral features to wave interactions in the transition region.

Findings

Density fluctuation spectrum resembles velocity spectrum scaled by a factor of two.

Density fluctuations have radial velocity around 75 km/s, velocity fluctuations around 250 km/s.

Spectral relationships are consistent with theoretical PDI predictions for the observed plasma conditions.

Abstract

We find evidence for the first observation of the parametric decay instability (PDI) in the lower solar atmosphere. Specifically, we find that the power spectrum of density fluctuations near the solar transition region resembles the power spectrum of the velocity fluctuations, but with the frequency axis scaled up by about a factor of two. These results are from an analysis of the Si IV lines observed by the Interface Region Imaging Spectrometer (IRIS) in the transition region of a polar coronal hole. We also find that the density fluctuations have radial velocity of about 75 km/s and that the velocity fluctuations are much faster with an estimated speed of 250 km/s, as is expected for sound waves and Alfv\'en waves, respectively, in the transition region. Theoretical calculations show that this frequency relationship is consistent with those expected from PDI for the plasma conditions of the observed region. These measurements suggest an interaction between sound waves and Alfv\'en waves in the transition region that is evidence for the parametric decay instability.