The Long-term Evolution of the Solar Transition Region

TL;DR

This study analyzes 11 years of solar images to reveal how the solar transition region's long-term behavior correlates with the solar activity cycle, highlighting different heating mechanisms at various latitudes.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive analysis of the long-term evolution of the solar transition region using observational data spanning over a decade.

Findings

Transition region variation is in phase with the solar cycle.

Polar brightening occurs during solar maximum.

Different magnetic field types contribute to heating at various latitudes.

Abstract

Long-term evolution characteristics of the solar transition region have been unclear. In this study, daily images of the solar full disk derived from the observations by the Solar Dynamics Observatory/Atmospheric Imaging Assembly at 304 A wavelength from 2011 January 1 to 2022 December 31 are used to investigate long-term evolution of the solar transition region. It is found that long-term variation in the transition region of the full disk is in phase with the solar activity cycle, and thus the polar brightening should occur in the maximum epoch of the solar cycle. Long-term variation of the background transition region is found to be likely in anti-phase with the solar activity cycle at middle and low latitudes. The entire transition region, especially the active transition region is inferred to be mainly heated by the active-region magnetic fields and the ephemeral-region magnetic fields, while the quieter transition region is believed to be mainly heated by network magnetic fields. Long-term evolution characteristics of various types of the magnetic fields at the solar surface are highly consistent with these findings, and thus provide an explanation for them.