Probing chromospheric fine structures with a H{\alpha} proxy using MURaM-ChE

TL;DR

This study develops a synthetic Hα proxy using MURaM-ChE simulations to identify and analyze small-scale chromospheric structures like RBEs, revealing their formation driven by flux emergence, reconnection, and associated heating processes.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel Doppler-shifted Hα proxy based on photon escape probability in radiative-MHD simulations, enabling detailed study of chromospheric fine structures.

Findings

Synthetic Hα proxy reliably identifies chromospheric features.

RBEs are driven by flux emergence and magnetic reconnection.

Heating fronts propagate along magnetic field lines at Alfven speeds.

Abstract

H$\alpha$ observations of the solar chromosphere reveal dynamic small-scale structures known as spicules at the limb and rapid blue and red shifted excursions (RBEs/RREs) on-disk. We want to understand what drives these dynamic features, their magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) properties and their role in energy and heat transport to the upper solar atmosphere. To do this, we aim to develop a proxy for synthetic H$\alpha$ observations in radiative-MHD simulations to help identify these features. We use the chromospheric extension to the MURaM code (MURaM-ChE) to simulate an enhanced network region. We develop a proxy for H$\alpha$ based on a photon escape probability. This is a Doppler-shifted proxy that we use to identify fine structures in the line wings. We study on-disk features in 3D, obtaining their 3D structure from the absorption coefficient. We validate the H$\alpha$ proxy by comparing it against features detected in the wings of H$\alpha$ synthesized using MULTI3D. We detect numerous small-scale structures rooted at the network patches, similar to observations in H$\alpha$. The dynamics of an example feature (RBE) at a Doppler shift of 37 km/s show that flux emergence and consequent reconnection drive the formation of this feature. Pressure gradient forces build up to drive a flow along the field line carrying the feature, making it a jet. There is strong viscous and resistive heating at the first appearance of the feature associated with the flux emergence. At the same time and location, a heating front appears and propagates along the field lines at speeds comparable to the Alfven velocity. We show that a synthetic observable based on an escape probability is able to reliably identify features observed with the H$\alpha$ spectral line. We demonstrate its applicability by studying the formation, dynamics and properties of an RBE.