Propagating magnetohydrodynamics waves in coronal loops

Abstract

High cadence Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) observations show that outward propagating intensity disturbances are a common feature in large, quiescent coronal loops, close to active regions. An overview is given of measured parameters of such longitudinal oscillations in coronal loops. The observed oscillations are interpreted as propagating slow magnetoacoustic waves and are unlikely to be flare-driven. A strong correlation, between the loop position and the periodicity of the oscillations, provides evidence that the underlying oscillations can propagate through the transition region and into the corona. Both a one- and a two-dimensional theoretical model of slow magnetoacoustic waves are presented to explain the very short observed damping lengths. The results of these numerical simulations are compared with the TRACE observations and show that a combination of the area divergence and thermal conduction agrees well with the observed amplitude decay. Additionally, the usefulness of wavelet analysis is discussed, showing that care has to be taken when interpreting the results of wavelet analysis, and a good knowledge of all possible factors that might influence or distort the results is a necessity.