High-frequency coronal oscillations and coronal heating

✍ Scribed by Jay M. Pasachoff; Donald A. Landman

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1984
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 591 KB
• Volume: 90
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0038-0938
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00173960

✦ Synopsis

At the 1980 total solar eclipse, we searched for high-frequency (0.1-2 Hz) oscillations in the intensity of the 5303-A coronal green line, as a test of predictions of theories of coronal heating via magnetohydrodynamic waves. Portions of the image 2.5-or 5-arc sec across were fed to cooled photomultipliers using fiber-optic probes. We detected excess power in Fourier transforms of the data for the region between 0.5 and 2 Hz at the level of 1% or 2% of the incident power. Such oscillations could be associated with Alfv~n waves that are trapped on loops a few thousand kilometers long or with fast waves that are trapped on loops a few thousand kilometers in diameter. Additional observations at the 1983 eclipse are planned to resolve atmospheric and instrumental contributions.