Magnetic Structure and Formation of On-disk Coronal Plumes

Abstract:

“Plumes” are feather-like features found on the solar disk, in the plage-like field concentrations of quiet regions. On-disk plumes are analogous to polar/coronal-hole plumes but have not been studied in detail in the past. We research their formation and characteristics, such as lifetime, intensity and magnetic setting at the feet. Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) images in the 171 Å filter and Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) line-of-sight magnetograms, both from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), are analyzed with the IDL SolarSoftWare package and used to study the plumes. We find that on-disk plumes form at the places of converging magnetic fields, and disappear when those fields disperse. However, plumes disappear after nearby events, such as flares, or with the emergence of opposite polarity. The lifetime of each plume tends to be several days, although some appear and disappear within several hours. On-disk plumes outline magnetic fields close to the sun, allowing a better understanding of fine magnetic structures than before. Additionally, since plumes must be heated to around 600,000 K to be visible in 171 Å, their formation and characteristics could tell about how they, and therefore the corona, are heated.