Ana Cristina Cadavid

Multifractal measure of the solar magnetic field

We analyze high-resolution, digital, photoelectric images of solar photospheric magnetic fields. The line-of-sight fields are found to scale in a self-similar way with resolution and thus can be expressed in the form of a signed multifractal measure. The scaling properties of the measure are used to extrapolate field integrals, such as moments of the magnetic field, below resolvable limits. The scaling of the field moments is characteristic of highly intermittent fields. We suggest that the quiet-Sun photospheric fields are generated by local dynamo action based on random convective motions at high magnetic Reynolds number. The properties of active region images are determined by the presence of fields generated by the global, mean field dynamo

Anomalous Diffusion of Solar Magnetic Elements

The diffusion properties of photospheric bright points associated with magnetic elements (magnetic bright points) in the granulation network are analyzed. We find that the transport is subdiffusive for times less than 20 minutes but normal for times larger than 25 minutes. The subdiffusive transport is caused by the walkers being trapped at stagnation points in the intercellular pattern. We find that the distribution of waiting times at the trap sites obeys a truncated Levy type (power-law) distribution. The fractal dimension of the pattern of sites available to the random walk is less than 2 for the subdiffusive range and tends to 2 in the normal diffusion range. We show how the continuous time random walk formalism can give an analytical explanation of the observations. We simulate this random walk by using a version of a phenomenological model of renewing cells introduced originally for supergranules by Simon, Title, & Weiss. We find that the traps that cause the subdiffusive transport arise when the renewed convection cell pattern is neither fixed nor totally uncorrelated from the old pattern, as required in Leightons model, but in some intermediate state between these extremes.

Characteristic Scales of Photospheric Flows and Their Magnetic and Temperature Markers

We study the characteristic scales of quiet-Sun photospheric velocity fields along with their temperature and magnetic markers in Doppler images from the Michelson Doppler Imager aboard the SOHO satellite (SOHO/MDI) in simultaneous, Doppler, magnetic, and intensity images from the San Fernando Observatory and in full-disk magnetograms and an intensity image from National Solar Observatory (Kitt Peak). Wavelet flatness spectra show that velocity fluctuations are normally distributed (Gaussian). This is often assumed in stochastic models of turbulence but had not yet been verified observationally for the Sun. Temperature fluctuations also are Gaussian distributed, but magnetic fields are intermittent and are gathered into patterns related to flow structures. Wavelet basis functions designed to detect characteristic convection cell-flow topologies in acoustically filtered SOHO/MDI Doppler images reveal granulation scales of 0.7-2.2 Mm and supergranulation scales of 28-40 Mm. Mesogranular flows are weakly but significantly detected in the range 4-8 Mm. The systematic flows account for only 30% of the image variances at granular and supergranular scales and much less in between. The main flows for the intermediate range of 2-15 Mm are self-similar, i.e., chaotic or turbulent.

Photospheric Sources and Brightening of the Internetwork Chromosphere

We analyze a unique 9 hr sequence of near-simultaneous, high-resolution and high-cadence G-band and K-line solar filtergrams, together with magnetograms of lower cadence and resolution. Our focus is on the phenomena surrounding discrete photospheric darkening events in internetwork G-band intensities. 72% of the darkenings are followed after 2 minutes by K-line brightenings. In the remaining cases, the darkenings are instead preceded by K-line brightenings 2 minutes earlier. Equivalent results are found when reference is shifted to K-line brightening events, although these two sets overlap by no more than 15%. The timing and coupling of the photospheric darkenings and chromospheric brightenings appear to be regulated by a preexisting 4 minute oscillation of the solar atmosphere. Other oscillations with periods in the range 1-8 minutes also are present, and in general the wave power is doubled at the time of an event. Our results favor an acoustic source for enhanced amplitudes of K-line intensity oscillations. The magnetic field acts as a passive tracer of horizontal photospheric flows that converge on the photospheric darkening events and then rebound.

Spatiotemporal Correlations and Turbulent Photospheric Flows from SOHO/MDI Velocity Data

Time series of high-resolution and full-disk velocity images obtained with the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) instrument on board SOHO have been used to calculate the spacetime spectrum of photospheric velocity flow. The effects of different methods for filtering acoustic oscillations have been carefully studied. It is found that the spectra show contributions both from organized structures that have their origin in the convection zone and from the turbulent flow. By considering time series of different duration and cadence in solar regions with different line-of-sight projections, it is possible to distinguish the contributions of the spectra from the two different kinds of flows. The spectra associated with the turbulent velocity fields obey power laws characterized by two scaling parameters whose values can be used to describe the type of diffusion. The first parameter is the spectral exponent of the spatial correlation function and the second is a scaling parameter of the time correlation function. Inclusion of the time parameter is an essential difference between the present work and other solar studies. Within the confidence limits of the data, the values of the two parameters indicate that the turbulent part of the flow in the scale range 16-120 Mm produces superdiffusive transport.

Influence of Photospheric Magnetic Fields and Dynamics on Chromospheric K-Line Emission

We analyze a 9 hr sequence of simultaneous, high-resolution, high-cadence G-band and K-line solar filtergrams plus magnetograms of lower cadence and resolution. Images include both network and internetwork. The magnetic and filtergram intensities, their fluctuations, and relative phases change with progressive strengthening of local magnetic field. At increased flux levels, sudden photospheric downflows create long-lived magnetic elements. For weak magnetic fields the K-line and G-band intensities include an oscillatory component with period 4 minutes. For stronger fields, the K-line period shifts to 5 minutes, while the G-band fluctuations fade due to dissociation of their source, the CH radical. These K-line and G-band fluctuations, whose periods are longer than the acoustic cutoff, are coherent and in phase. They also are coherent with fluctuations of the magnetic field. Weak-field magnetic fluctuations lead the intensity fluctuations by a phase shift of 90°. Strong-field magnetic fluctuations trail the intensities by 100°. These are interpreted as standing waves in the photosphere and low chromosphere. Another class of G-band fluctuations, with periods shorter than the acoustic cutoff, is associated both with stronger magnetic fields and with enhanced K-line emission with fluctuations longer than the cutoff period. This suggests waves excited by rapid photospheric perturbations and propagating up along magnetic flux tubes.

MULTIFRACTAL SOLAR EUV INTENSITY FLUCTUATIONS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR CORONAL HEATING MODELS

We investigate the scaling properties of the long-range temporal evolution and intermittency of SDO/AIA intensity observations in four solar environments: an active region core, a weak emission region, and two core loops. We use two approaches: the probability distribution function (PDF) of time series increments, and multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MF-DFA). Noise taints the results, so we focus on the 171 Angstrom waveband , which has the highest signal-to-noise ratio. The lags between pairs of wavebands distinguish between coronal versus transition region (TR) emission. In all physical regions studied, scaling in the range 15-45 min is multifractal, and the time series are anti-persistent on the average. The degree of anti-correlation in the TR time series is greater than for coronal emission. The multifractality stems from long term correlations in the data rather than the wide distribution of intensities. Observations in the 335 Angstrom waveband can be described in terms of a multifractal with added noise. The multiscaling of the EUV data agrees qualitatively with the radiance from a phenomenological model of impulsive bursts plus noise, and also from ohmic dissipation in a reduced magnetohydrodynamics (RMHD) model for coronal loop heating. The parameter space must be further explored to seek quantitative agreement. Thus, the observational signatures obtained by the combined tests of the PDF of increments and the MF-DFA offer strong constraints which can systematically discriminate among models for coronal heating.