Solar activity dependence of trans-equatorial ion whistler

This paper describes occurrence probabilities and patterns of trans-equatorial proton (TEP), deuteron (TED) and helium (TEH) whistler from the ISIS-2 satellite in time compressed dynamic spectra. It is shown that the TEP whistlers have high occurrence probability in an active solar period, while the TED whistler has low occurrence probability. In a quiet solar period, the TEP whistler has a relatively lower occurrence probability than the TED whistler. The TEP whistler in a quiet solar period shows a strong seasonal variation. That is a higher occurrence probability in the winter than in the summer in the Northern Hemisphere. The curve of occurrence probability of the TED whistler has a valley (no occurrence) at the noon in a solar active period. The minimum occurrence probabilities, which depend on geomagnetic activity appear at about K_P = 4-5. These phenomena seem to be explained by using the bouncing surface diagram of multicomponent and inhomogeneous plasmas with various proton density. The spectral pattern of trans-equatorial ion whistlers and calculation of an approximate equation with regard to deuteron effect show that relative proton densities to electrons N_P/N_e decrease with increasing solar activity.     

UV Observations with the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer

The Transition Region and Coronal Explorer is a space-borne solar telescope featuring high spatial and temporal resolution. TRACE images emission from solar plasmas in three extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) wavelengths and several ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths, covering selected ion temperatures from 6000 K to 1 MK. The TRACE UV channel employs special optics to collect high-resolution solar images of the H i L line at 1216 Å, the C iv resonance doublet at 1548 and 1550 Å, the UV continuum near 1550 Å, and also a white-light image covering the spectrum from 2000–8000 Å.We present an analytical technique for creating photometrically accurate images of the C iv resonance lines from the data products collected by the TRACE UV channel. We use solar spectra from several space-borne instruments to represent a variety of solar conditions ranging from quiet Sun to active regions to derive a method, using a linear combination of filtered UV images, to generate an image of solar C iv 1550 Å emission. Systematic and statistical error estimates are also presented. This work indicates that C iv measurements will be reliable for intensities greater than 1014 photons s–1 cm–2 sr–1. This suggests that C iv 1550 Å images will be feasible with statistical error below 20% in the magnetic network, bright points, active regions, flares and other features bright in C iv. Below this intensity the derived image is dominated by systematic error and read noise from the CCD.     

A Method of Resolving the 180-Degree Ambiguity by Employing the Chirality of Solar Features

The 180-degree ambiguity in magnetic field direction along polarity reversal boundaries can be resolved often and reliably by the chiral method. The chiral method requires (1) identification of the chirality of at least one solar feature related to a polarity reversal boundary along which the field direction is sought and (2) knowledge of the polarity of the network magnetic field on at least one side of the polarity reversal boundary. In the context of the Sun, chirality is an observable signature of the handedness of the magnetic field of a solar feature. We concentrate on how to determine magnetic field direction from chirality definitions and illustrate the technique in eight examples. The examples cover the spectrum of polarity boundaries associated with filament channels and filaments ranging from those connected with active regions to those on the quiet Sun. The applicability of the chiral method to all categories of filaments supports the view that active region filaments and quiescent filaments are the extreme ends in a continuous spectrum of filaments. The chiral method is almost universally applicable because many types of solar features that reveal chirality are now readily seen in solar images accessible over the World Wide Web; also there are clear differences between left-handed and right-handed solar structures that can be identified in both high- and low-resolution data although high-resolution images are almost always preferable. In addition to filaments and filament channels, chirality is identifiable in coronal loop systems, flare loop systems, sigmoids, some sunspots, and some erupting prominences. Features other than filament channels and filaments can be used to resolve the 180-degree ambiguity because there is a one-to-one relationship between the chiralities of all features associated with a given polarity reversal boundary. Y. Lin is now at the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Oslo.     

A Comparison of Feature Classification Methods for Modeling Solar Irradiance Variation

Physical understanding of total and spectral solar irradiance variation depends upon establishing a connection between the temporal variability of spatially resolved solar structures and spacecraft observations of irradiance. One difficulty in comparing models derived from different data sets is that the many ways for identifying solar features such as faculae, sunspots, quiet Sun, and various types of “network” are not necessarily consistent. To learn more about classification differences and how they affect irradiance models, feature “masks” are compared as derived from five current methods: multidimensional histogram analysis of NASA/National Solar Observatory/Kitt Peak spectromagnetograph data, statistical pattern recognition applied to SOHO/Michelson Doppler Imager photograms and magnetograms, threshold masks allowing for influence of spatial surroundings applied to NSO magnetograms, and “one-trigger” and “three-trigger” algorithms applied to California State University at Northridge Cartesian Full Disk Telescope intensity observations. In general all of the methods point to the same areas of the Sun for labeling sunspots and active-region faculae, and available time series of area measurements from the methods correlate well with each other and with solar irradiance. However, some methods include larger label sets, and there are important differences in detail, with measurements of sunspot area differing by as much as a factor of two. The methods differ substantially regarding inclusion of fine spatial scale in the feature definitions. The implications of these differences for modeling solar irradiance variation are discussed. K.L. Harvey and S.R. Walton are deseased, to whom this paper is dedicated.     

Automated Coronal Hole Detection Using Local Intensity Thresholding Techniques

We identify coronal holes using a histogram-based intensity thresholding technique and compare their properties to fast solar wind streams at three different points in the heliosphere. The thresholding technique was tested on EUV and X-ray images obtained using instruments onboard STEREO, SOHO and Hinode. The full-disk images were transformed into Lambert equal-area projection maps and partitioned into a series of overlapping sub-images from which local histograms were extracted. The histograms were used to determine the threshold for the low intensity regions, which were then classified as coronal holes or filaments using magnetograms from the SOHO/MDI. For all three instruments, the local thresholding algorithm was found to successfully determine coronal hole boundaries in a consistent manner. Coronal hole properties extracted using the segmentation algorithm were then compared with in situ measurements of the solar wind at ～?1 AU from ACE and STEREO. Our results indicate that flux tubes rooted in coronal holes expand super-radially within 1 AU and that larger (smaller) coronal holes result in longer (shorter) duration high-speed solar wind streams.     

Automation of the Filament Tracking in the Framework of the HELIO Project

We present a new method to automatically track filaments over the solar disk. The filaments are first detected on Meudon Spectroheliograph Hα images of the Sun, applying the technique developed by Fuller, Aboudarham, and Bentley (Solar Phys. 227, 61, 2005). This technique combines cleaning processes, image segmentation based on region growing, and morphological parameter extraction, including the determination of filament skeletons. The coordinates of the skeleton pixels, given in a heliocentric system, are then converted to a more appropriate reference frame that follows the rotation of the Sun surface. In such a frame, a co-rotating filament is always located around the same position, and its skeletons (extracted from each image) are thus spatially close, forming a group of adjacent features. In a third step, the shape of each skeleton is compared with its neighbours using a curve-matching algorithm. This step will permit us to define the probability [P] that two close filaments in the co-rotating frame are actually the same one observed on two different images. At the end, the pairs of features, for which the corresponding probability is greater than a threshold value, are associated using tracking identification indices. On a representative sample of filaments, the good agreement between automated and manual tracking confirms the reliability of the technique to be applied on large data sets. This code is already used in the framework of the Heliophysics Integrated Observatory (HELIO) to populate a catalogue dedicated to solar and heliospheric features (HFC). An extension of this method to other filament observations, and possibly sunspots, faculae, and coronal-holes tracking, can also be envisaged.     

Solar Wind Sources in the Late Declining Phase of Cycle 23: Effects of the Weak Solar Polar Field on High Speed Streams

The declining phases of solar cycles are known for their high speed solar wind streams that dominate the geomagnetic responses during this period. Outstanding questions about these streams, which can provide the fastest winds of the solar cycle, concern their solar origins, persistence, and predictability. The declining phase of cycle 23 has lasted significantly longer than the corresponding phases of the previous two cycles. Solar magnetograph observations suggest that the solar polar magnetic field is also ～?2?–?3 times weaker. The launch of STEREO in late 2006 provided additional incentive to examine the origins of what is observed at 1 AU in the recent cycle, with the OMNI data base at the NSSDC available as an Earth/L1 baseline for comparisons. Here we focus on the year 2007 when the solar corona exhibited large, long-lived mid-to-low latitude coronal holes and polar hole extensions observed by both SOHO and STEREO imagers. STEREO provides in situ measurements consistent with rigidly corotating solar wind stream structure at up to ～?45° heliolongitude separation by late 2007. This stability justifies the use of magnetogram-based steady 3D solar wind models to map the observed high speed winds back to their coronal sources. We apply the WSA solar wind model currently running at the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center with the expectation that it should perform its best at this quiet time. The model comparisons confirm the origins of the observed high speed streams expected from the solar images, but also reveal uncertainties in the solar wind source mapping associated with this cycle’s weaker solar polar fields. Overall, the results illustrate the importance of having accurate polar fields in synoptic maps used in solar wind forecast models. At the most fundamental level, they demonstrate the control of the solar polar fields over the high speed wind sources, and thus one specific connection between the solar dynamo and the solar wind character.     

Multi-Wavelength Signatures of Magnetic Reconnection of a Flare-Associated Coronal Mass Ejection

The evolution of an X2.7 solar flare, that occurred in a complex β γ δ magnetic configuration region on 3 November 2003 is discussed by utilizing a multi-wavelength data set. The very first signature of pre-flare coronal activity is observed in radio wavelengths as a type III burst that occurred several minutes prior to the flare signature in Hα. This type III burst is followed by the appearance of a loop-top source in hard X-ray (HXR) images obtained from RHESSI. During the main phase of the event, Hα images observed from ARIES solar tower telescope, Nainital, reveal well-defined footpoint (FP) and loop-top (LT) sources. As the flare evolves, the LT source moves upward and the separation between the two FP sources increases. The co-alignment of Hα with HXR images shows spatial correlation between Hα and HXR footpoints, whereas the rising LT source in HXR is always located above the LT source seen in Hα. The evolution of LT and FP sources is consistent with the reconnection models of solar flares. The EUV images at 195 Å taken by SOHO/EIT reveal intense emission on the disk at the flaring region during the impulsive phase. Further, slow-drifting type IV bursts, observed at low coronal heights at two time intervals along the flare period, indicate rising plasmoids or loop systems. The intense type II radio burst at a time in between these type IV bursts, but at a relatively greater height, indicates the onset of CME and its associated coronal shock wave. The study supports the standard CSHKP model of flares, which is consistent with nearly all eruptive flare models. More importantly, the results also contain evidence for breakout reconnection before the flare phase.     

Automated Solar Flare Detection and Feature Extraction in High-Resolution and Full-Disk H$\upalpha$ Images

In this article, an automated solar flare detection method applied to both full-disk and local high-resolution H\(\upalpha\) images is proposed. An adaptive gray threshold and an area threshold are used to segment the flare region. Features of each detected flare event are extracted, e.g. the start, peak, and end time, the importance class, and the brightness class. Experimental results have verified that the proposed method can obtain more stable and accurate segmentation results than previous works on full-disk images from Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) and Kanzelhöhe Observatory for Solar and Environmental Research (KSO), and satisfying segmentation results on high-resolution images from the Goode Solar Telescope (GST). Moreover, the extracted flare features correlate well with the data given by KSO. The method may be able to implement a more complicated statistical analysis of H\(\upalpha\) solar flares.     

Automatic Tracking of Active Regions and Detection of Solar Flares in Solar EUV Images

Solar catalogs are frequently handmade by experts using a manual approach or semi-automated approach. The appearance of new tools is very useful because the work is automated. Nowadays it is impossible to produce solar catalogs using these methods, because of the emergence of new spacecraft that provide a huge amount of information. In this article an automated system for detecting and tracking active regions and solar flares throughout their evolution using the Extreme UV Imaging Telescope (EIT) on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft is presented. The system is quite complex and consists of different phases: i) acquisition and preprocessing; ii) segmentation of regions of interest; iii) clustering of these regions to form candidate active regions which can become active regions; iv) tracking of active regions; v) detection of solar flares. This article describes all phases, but focuses on the phases of tracking and detection of active regions and solar flares. The system relies on consecutive solar images using a rotation law to track the active regions. Also, graphs of the evolution of a region and solar evolution are presented to detect solar flares. The procedure developed has been tested on 3500 full-disk solar images (corresponding to 35 days) taken from the spacecraft. More than 75 % of the active regions are tracked and more than 85 % of the solar flares are detected.     

The X-ray line and continuum emission from a solar active region

The X-ray spectrum of the quiet Sun in the energy range 2.3–6.9 keV was observed from an Aerobee rocket using an uncollimated graphite crystal spectrometer. These results and spatial measurements made with an onboard modulation collimator are analyzed using solar models. Several methods of estimating coronal temperatures are used in the analysis and all yield results within the range (4±l) × l0⁶K.     

Geoactive zones in the solar wind

Three parameters of the solar wind, proton number density n, Z-component of frozen-in magnetic field, in solar ecliptic coordinates and magnetic field variability ΔB, may be called geoactive parameters since each of them is responsible for a certain phase or stage of a geomagnetic storm.An undisturbed solar corpuscular stream differs from the quiet solar wind mainly in higher bulk velocity v; other parameters, in particular, n, Z and ΔB, are not enhanced in the stream. However, the examination of a number of geomagnetic storms shows that v is not a geoactive parameter. Hence the corpuscular stream itself is not more geoactive than the quiet solar wind.The retarding of corpuscular stream by the quiet solar wind results in various plasma deformations (compression, torsion, shear). This, in turn, leads to the creation, in the stream and ambient quiet solar wind, of geoactive zones. Each zone is characterized by the enhancement of some geoactive parameter. The entry of the Earth into a geoactive zone causes a corresponding phase or stage of a geomagnetic storm.The concept of geoactive zones is applied to the analysis of the geomagnetic storm of 8–10 July 1966.     

Solar Feature Identification using Contrasts and Contiguity

We present a new technique for the rapid, automatic identification of solar features on full-disk photometric images. The technique permits the detection of features whose contrasts are only slightly above the noise level. Contrast and contiguity criteria are used to identify pixels belonging to an individual feature. The criteria used are simple and objective, and do not require one to guess at the contrast distribution of the features. Comparison of Caii K images with magnetograms shows excellent agreement between the identified features and observed magnetic features. In addition, we can now reliably identify faculae on continuum images. Since this technique can be rapidly applied to a large set of images, it allows us to compile a database of the physical and photometric properties of individual solar features.     

基于改进VNet太阳暗条检测方法

太阳暗条作为太阳大气磁场的示踪,对研究太阳磁场有极其重要的意义。针对现有的暗条检测方法存在检测精度不高,弱小暗条错检、漏检等问题,提出一种基于改进VNet网络的太阳暗条检测方法。首先,使用大熊湖天文台Hα全日面图像并结合磁图制作了太阳暗条数据集;其次,在VNet网络下采样部分采用Inception模块融合不同尺度特征图的特征,同时加入注意力机制增强特征图中暗条部分的语义信息;最后在上采样部分引入深度监督模块,更多地保留太阳暗条的细节特征。为验证算法性能,采用191幅Hα全日面图像数据集,其中包含暗条共3372条。算法在测试数据集上平均准确率达到0.9883,F1值达到0.8385。实验结果证明,该方法可以有效识别Hα全日面图中的暗条。     

The He I 10830 Å Line as an Indicator of Solar Activity

The behavior of the He I 10830 Å infrared triplet parameters in active and quiet solar regions was traced from 1976 until 2000. We analyze the correlation between the central depth of the main He I line component and other solar activity indices: the Wolf number, the radiation flux at a frequency of 2800 MHz, the mean number of flares in sunspot groups, and the mean solar magnetic field. We show that the strong correlation between the He I 10830 Å line depth and the phase of the 11-year solar cycle allows this depth to be effectively used as a new solar activity index both on long time scales (years) and on times scales of the order of a month or even days. The suggested new activity index is shown to have advantages over the universally accepted indices. The depth of the He I 10830 Å line in quiet regions was found to increase from the phase of minimum solar activity to the phase of maximum by a factor of about 2. In active regions, this increase is less than 30%. The differences between the cyclic variations of the chromospheric He I 10830 Å line radiation in active and quiet structures on the solar disk are indicative of the probable differences in the nature of cyclicity and its manifestations in magnetic fields of different spatial scales. The background magnetic fields appear to vary during the solar cycle more strongly than do the local fields associated with sunspots, faculae, and activity complexes. We suggest using regular observations in the He I 10830 Å line to predict solar activity.     

Application of Non-linear Analysis to Intensity Oscillations of the Chromospheric Bright Points

We have applied several nonlinear techniques to the intensity oscillations of the chromospheric bright points observed at the Vacuum Tower Telescope (VTT) of the Sacramento Peak Observatory. A 35-min time sequence obtained in the Caii H line over a quiet region at the center of the solar disk under high spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution has been used. A relatively new approach is used to detect the hidden periodicity and to extract the associated periodic component(s) from an apparently irregular time series. The unique feature of this approach is that the constituent component(s) can be non-sinusoidal in nature. The periodicity analysis shows that time series of intensity oscillations of most of the bright points can be composed of two non-sinusoidal periodic components with periodicity varying between 2.4 min and 5.8 min. With the help of a multivariate embedding technique, globally significant spatial nonlinear correlation is found. The identification of the nonlinear interaction between bright points is performed by using the methods of dynamical phase synchronization and the similarity index. The analysis indicates that bright points are interconnected in the sense that some bright points are more active and can influence the other relatively passive bright points.     

Solar nebula dispersal and the stability of the planetary system: I. Scanning secular resonance theory

Secular resonances in the early solar system are studied in an effort to establish constraints on the time scale and/or method of solar nebula dispersal. Simplified nebula models and dispersal routines are employed to approximate changes in an assumed axisymmetric nebula potential. These changes, in turn, drive an evolutionary sequence of Laplace-Lagrange solutions for the secular variations of the solar system. A general feature of these sequences is a sweep of one or more giant planet resonances through the inner solar system. Their effect is rate dependent; in the linearized models considered, characteristic dispersal times ≤O(10^4?5 years) are required to avoid the generation of terrestrial eccentricities and inclinations in excess of observed values. These times are short compared to typical estimates of the accretion time scales [i.e., ～O(10^7?9 years)] and may provide an important boundary condition for developing models of nebula dispersal and solar system formation in general.     

Multi-Scale Gaussian Normalization for Solar Image Processing

Extreme ultra-violet images of the corona contain information over a wide range of spatial scales, and different structures such as active regions, quiet Sun, and filament channels contain information at very different brightness regimes. Processing of these images is important to reveal information, often hidden within the data, without introducing artefacts or bias. It is also important that any process be computationally efficient, particularly given the fine spatial and temporal resolution of Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on the Solar Dynamics Observatory (AIA/SDO), and consideration of future higher resolution observations. A very efficient process is described here, which is based on localised normalising of the data at many different spatial scales. The method reveals information at the finest scales whilst maintaining enough of the larger-scale information to provide context. It also intrinsically flattens noisy regions and can reveal structure in off-limb regions out to the edge of the field of view. We also applied the method successfully to a white-light coronagraph observation.     

Segmentation Of Photospheric And Chromospheric Solar Features

We describe the application of a multi-scale Laplacian-of-Gaussian (LoG) operator and of an iterative version of Medial Axis Transform (i-MAT) as tools for the segmentation of both photospheric and chromospheric solar features. We introduce the multi-scale LoG operator in order to extract compact structures in photospheric intensity or Doppler images. The second method, based on a i-MAT algorithm applied to gray level images, is introduced to recognize reticulated structures like chromospheric network or intergranular lanes. The developed numerical procedures allow a non-subjective segmentation of solar images in order to investigate morphological and topological properties of identified features. We discuss the output of the segmentation procedures when applied to real images.     

Dynamics of Trees of Fragmenting Granules in the Quiet Sun: <Emphasis Type="Italic">Hinode</Emphasis>/SOT Observations Compared to Numerical Simulation

We compare horizontal velocities, vertical magnetic fields, and the evolution of trees of fragmenting granules (TFG, also named families of granules) derived in the quiet Sun at disk center from observations at solar minimum and maximum of the Solar Optical Telescope (SOT on board Hinode) and results of a recent 3D numerical simulation of the magneto-convection. We used 24-hour sequences of a 2D field of view (FOV) with high spatial and temporal resolution recorded by the SOT Broad band Filter Imager (BFI) and Narrow band Filter Imager (NFI). TFG were evidenced by segmentation and labeling of continuum intensities. Horizontal velocities were obtained from local correlation tracking (LCT) of proper motions of granules. Stokes V provided a proxy of the line-of-sight magnetic field (BLOS). The MHD simulation (performed independently) produced granulation intensities, velocity, and magnetic field vectors. We discovered that TFG also form in the simulation and show that it is able to reproduce the main properties of solar TFG: lifetime and size, associated horizontal motions, corks, and diffusive index are close to observations. The largest (but not numerous) families are related in both cases to the strongest flows and could play a major role in supergranule and magnetic network formation. We found that observations do not reveal any significant variation in TFG between solar minimum and maximum.