A multi-viewpoint comparison of the velocity field of coronal propagating disturbances

TL;DR

This study compares coronal propagating disturbances in the solar corona using a novel velocity mapping method across different viewpoints, revealing consistent velocity fields and magnetic structures in quiet Sun regions, coronal holes, and filament channels.

Contribution

It introduces a new multi-viewpoint analysis of PD velocity fields using Time-Normalised Optical Flow, demonstrating agreement between different instruments and insights into coronal magnetic configurations.

Findings

PD velocity fields are consistent across instruments despite height differences.

Coronal hole regions exhibit higher median PD speeds (~17 km/s).

Magnetic modeling suggests long-lived coronal holes are overlaid by low-lying loops.

Abstract

Small-scale propagating disturbances (PD) are ubiquitous in the solar corona. Time-Normalised Optical Flow (TNOF) is a method developed for mapping PD velocity fields in time series of Extreme-Ultraviolet (EUV) images. We show PD velocity fields of a quiet Sun (QS) region containing a small coronal hole (CH) and filament channel (FC) jointly observed by Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) aboard the Solar Orbiter and Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The QS observations acquired on 28 October 2023 in 174A channel of High Resolution EUV Imager (HRIEUV) of EUI and 171A channel of AIA are used. During the time of the observations, the separation angle between Solar Orbiter and SDO was approximately 26\de. A novel image alignment analysis shows that the dominant formation heights are 11.4Mm for HRIEUV and 4Mm for AIA. Despite this height difference, the PD velocity fields obtained from the observations from the two instruments are in good agreement across the region. In the QS the median PD speed is around 6.7 and 7.4\kms\ for HRIEUV and AIA respectively, with maximum speeds of around 40\kms. The small equatorial CH is a region dominated by a low temperature of $\approx$0.8MK and is host to high PD speeds, with a median speed of 17\kms. The velocity field bridges coherently across the CH from neighbouring QS regions from east to west, thus the CH must be overlaid by a system of long, low-lying closed magnetic loops. This unexpected configuration is supported by a potential field (PF) magnetic model and may be due to the longevity of the CH, allowing time for interchange reconnection with neighbouring closed-field regions. The FC is observed to be multithermal, with a narrow central strip of high emission at both low (0.8MK) and high (2.5MK) temperatures and low emission at warm (1.2MK) temperature. The FC has PD speeds similar to those of the QS.