Abstract We report on high-resolution observations of recurrent fan-like jets by the Goode Solar Telescope in multiple wavelengths inside a sunspot group. The dynamics behavior of the jets is derived from the H α line profiles. Quantitative values for one well-identified event have been obtained, showing a maximum projected velocity of 42 km s −1 and a Doppler shift of the order of 20 km s −1 . The footpoints/roots of the jets have a lifted center on the H α line profile compared to the quiet Sun, suggesting a long-lasting heating at these locations. The magnetic field between the small sunspots in the group shows a very high resolution pattern with parasitic polarities along the intergranular lanes accompanied by high-velocity converging flows (4 km s −1 ) in the photosphere. Magnetic cancellations between the opposite polarities are observed in the vicinity of the footpoints of the jets. Along the intergranular lanes horizontal magnetic field around 1000 G is generated impulsively. Overall, all the kinetic features at the different layers through the photosphere and chromosphere favor a convection-driven reconnection scenario for the recurrent fan-like jets and evidence a site of reconnection between the photosphere and chromosphere corresponding to the intergranular lanes.
Abstract We used 29 high-resolution line-of-sight magnetograms acquired with the Goode Solar Telescope (GST) in a quiet-Sun area to extrapolate a series of potential field configurations and study their time variations. The study showed that there are regions that consistently exhibit changes in loop connectivity, whereas other vast areas do not show such changes. Analysis of the topological features of the potential fields indicates that the photospheric footprint of the separatrix between open- and closed-loop systems closely matches the roots of rapid blue- and redshifted excursions, which are disk counterparts of type II spicules. There is a tendency for the footpoints of the observed H α features to be cospatial with the footpoints of the loops that most frequently change their connectivity, while the area occupied by the open fields that did not show any significant and persistent connectivity changes is void of prominent jet and spicular activity. We also detected and tracked magnetic elements using the Southwest Automatic Magnetic Identification Suite and GST magnetograms, which allowed us to construct artificial magnetograms and calculate the corresponding potential field configurations. Analysis of the artificial data showed tendencies similar to those found for the observed data. The present study suggests that a significant amount of chromospheric activity observed in the far wings of the H α spectral line may be generated by reconnecting closed-loop systems and canopy fields consisting of “open” field lines.
Broadband, efficient and fast conversion of light to electricity is crucial for sensing and clean energy. Here we reveal the largest observed bulk photo-voltaic effect (BPVE), an intrinsic mechanism predicted to be ultrafast and exceed the Shockley-Quiesser limit. This discovery results from combining recent developments in the connection of BPVE to topology, Weyl semimetals and focused-ion beam fabrication. Our room temperature observation of the first BPVE in the mid-IR, is enabled by microscopic devices of the Weyl semimetal TaAs. Detailed symmetry analysis enables unambiguous separation of this response from competing photo-thermal effects. The size and wavelength range of the shift current offers new opportunities in optical detectors, clean energy, and topology, while directly demonstrating the utility of Weyl semimetals for applications.
It is reported that ultra-fine dynamic ejections along magnetic loops of an active region originate from intergranular lanes and they are associated with subsequent heating in the corona. As continuing work, we analyze the same set of data but focus on a quiet region and the overlying EUV/UV emission as observed by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). We find that there appear to be dark patches scattered across the quiet region and the dark patches always stay along intergranular lanes. Over the dark patches, the average UV/EUV emission at 131, 171, 304 and 1600 Å (middle temperature) is more intense than that of other regions and EUV brightness is negatively correlated with 10830 Å intensity, though, such a trend does not exist for high temperature lines at 94, 193, 211 and 335 Å. For the same quiet region, where both TiO 7057 Å broad band images and 10830 Å filtergrams are available, contours for the darkest lane areas on TiO images and dark patches on 10830 Å filtergrams frequently differ in space. The results suggest that the dark patches do not simply reflect the areas with the darkest lanes but are associated with a kind of enhanced absorption (EA) at 10830 Å. A strict definition for EA with narrow band 10830 Å filtergrams is found to be difficult. In this paper, we define enhanced absorption patches (EAPs) of a quiet region as the areas where emission is less than ∼90% of the mean intensity of the region. The value is equivalent to the average intensity along thin dark loops connecting two moss regions of the active region. A more strict definition for EAPs, say 88%, gives even more intense UV/EUV emission over those in the middle temperature range. The results provide further observational evidence that energy for heating the upper solar atmosphere comes from the intergranular lane area where the magnetic field is constantly brought in by convection motion in granules.
Abstract Recent studies suggest that the magnetic switchbacks (SBs) detected by the Parker Solar Probe carry information on the scales of solar supergranulation (large scale) and granulation (medium scale). We test this claim using high-resolution H α images obtained with the visible spectropolarimeters of the Goode Solar Telescope in Big Bear Solar Observatory. As possible solar sources, we count all the spicule-like features standing along the chromospheric networks near the coronal hole boundary visible in the H α blue-wing but absent in the red-wing images and measure the geometric parameters of dense sections of individual flux tubes. Intervals between adjacent spicules located along the chromospheric networks are found in the range of 0.4–1.5 Mm (0.°03–0.°12) tending to be smaller than the medium scale of SBs. Interdistances between all pairs of the flux tubes are also counted and they appear in a single peak distribution around 0.7 Mm (0.°06) unlike the waiting-time distribution of SBs in a scale-free single power-law form. The length-to-diameter ratio of the dense section of flux tubes is as high as 6–40, similar to the aspect ratio of SBs. The number of spicules along a network can be as high as 40–100, consistent with numerous SBs within a patch. With these numbers, it is argued that the medium scale of SBs can be understood as an equilibrium distance resulting from a random walk within each diverging magnetic field funnel connected to the chromospheric networks.
Abstract The New Vacuum Solar Telescope (NVST) has been releasing its novel winged H α data (WHD) since 2021 April, namely the H α imaging spectroscopic data. Compared with the prior released version, the new data are further co-aligned among the off-band images and packaged into a standard solar physics community format. In this study, we illustrate the alignment algorithm used by the novel WHD, which is mainly based on the optical flow method to obtain the translation offset between the winged images. To quantitatively evaluate the alignment results of two images with different similarities, we calculate the alignment accuracies between the images of different off-band and line center, respectively. The result shows that our alignment algorithm could reach up to the accuracy of about 0.″1 when the off-band of winged image is lower than 0.6 Å. In addition, we introduce the final product of the WHD in detail, which can provide convenience for the solar physicists to use high-resolution H α imaging spectroscopic data of NVST.
Solar observations of carbon monoxide (CO) indicate the existence of lower-temperature gas in the lower solar chromosphere. We present an observation of pores, and quiet-Sun, and network magnetic field regions with CO 4.66 {\mu}m lines by the Cryogenic Infrared Spectrograph (CYRA) at Big Bear Solar Observatory. We used the strong CO lines at around 4.66 {\mu}m to understand the properties of the thermal structures of lower solar atmosphere in different solar features with various magnetic field strengths. AIA 1700 {\AA} images, HMI continuum images and magnetograms are also included in the observation. The data from 3D radiation magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation with the Bifrost code are also employed for the first time to be compared with the observation. We used the RH code to synthesize the CO line profiles in the network regions. The CO 3-2 R14 line center intensity changes to be either enhanced or diminished with increasing magnetic field strength, which should be caused by different heating effects in magnetic flux tubes with different sizes. We find several "cold bubbles" in the CO 3-2 R14 line center intensity images, which can be classified into two types. One type is located in the quiet-Sun regions without magnetic fields. The other type, which has rarely been reported in the past, is near or surrounded by magnetic fields. Notably, some are located at the edge of the magnetic network. The two kinds of cold bubbles and the relationship between cold bubble intensities and network magnetic field strength are both reproduced by the 3D MHD simulation with the Bifrost and RH codes. The simulation also shows that there is a cold plasma blob near the network magnetic fields, causing the observed cold bubbles seen in the CO 3-2 R14 line center image. Our observation and simulation illustrate that the magnetic field plays a vital role in the generation of some CO cold bubbles.
The quasi-optical mode converter for a frequency step-tunable gyrotron which consists of a dimpled-wall antenna (Denisov-type launcher) and a beam-forming mirror system has been optimized for 9 modes from TE17,6 at 105 GHz to TE23,8 at 143 GHz. The first mirror is a large quasi-elliptical focusing one; the second and third are phase-correcting mirrors with a non-quadratic shape of the surface. The results of calculations show that for these modes the Denisov-type launcher has a well-focused beam with low diffraction losses, and the radiation pattern presents an almost identical field shape for all modes considered. A multi-mode optimization of the phase-correcting mirrors with two different methods has been tested. The simulations show that the phase-correcting mirrors can be used for broadband operation in the frequency range from 105 GHz up to 143 GHz in the various design modes. This quasi-optical mode converter can achieve efficiencies of 94%-98% for converting the rotating high-order cylindrical cavity modes into the usable fundamental Gaussian mode.
Abstract Observations with the Goode Solar Telescope (GST) are presented here showing that the emergence of 1.91 × 10 18 Mx of new magnetic flux occurred at the edge of a filamentary light bridge (LB). This emergence was accompanied by brightness enhancement of a photospheric overturning convection cell (OCC) at the endpoints of the emerging magnetic structure. We present an analysis of the origin and the dynamics of this event using high-resolution GST Fe i 1564.85 nm vector magnetic field data, TiO photospheric, and H α chromospheric images. The emerged structure was 1.5 × 0.3 Mm in size at the peak of development and lasted for 17 minutes. Doppler observations showed presence of systematic upflows before the appearance of the magnetic field signal and downflows during the decay phase. Changes in the orientation of the associated transverse fields, determined from the differential angle, suggest the emergence of a twisted magnetic structure. A fan-shaped jet was observed to be spatially and temporally correlated with the endpoint of the OCC intruding into the LB. Our data suggest that the emerging fields may have reconnected with the magnetic fields in the vicinity of the LB, which could lead to the formation of the jet. Our observation is the first report of flux emergence within a granular LB with evidence in the evolution of vector magnetic field, as well as photosphere convection motions, and supports the idea that the impulsive jets above the LB are caused by magnetic reconnection.