Observational Evidence of Resonant Absorption in Oscillating Prominence

Abstract:

Coronal heating and the acceleration of the solar wind are unsolved problems in solar physics. The propagation of Alfven waves along magnetic field lines is one of the candidate mechanisms for carrying energy to large distances from the surface and heat the coronal plasma. However, the dissipation process is still unclear in observational aspects.

The new NASA's solar physics satellite IRIS (Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph) provides spectral information of plasma in the chromosphere and transition region with high-spatial and high-temporal resolution. Hence, we performed observations of a limb prominence to find evidence and clues of dissipation in collaboration with Hinode/SOT and SDO/AIA.

In our observations, we found a clear evidence of resonant absorption that takes place on the surface of the oscillating prominence flux tubes. This mechanism facilitates the onset of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, which deforms the thin tube's boundaries and generates thin current sheets and turbulence, leading to dissipation of the wave energy into heat. In this talk, we will show the observed phenomena and discuss the dissipation mechanism compared with numerical simulations of an oscillating prominence.