Simulations of the Kelvin–helmholtz Instability Driven by Coronal Mass Ejections in the Turbulent Corona

Gomez, Daniel Osvaldo; DeLuca, E. E.; Mininni, Pablo D.

doi:10.3847/0004-637x/818/2/126

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…High-resolution observations with modern space instruments enable us to detect the KHI in the Sun, e.g. at the boundaries of lager-scale coronal mass ejections (CMEs) 13 – 16 or within fine-scale structures (e.g. filaments 17 ) in the solar corona 18 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observing Kelvin–Helmholtz instability in solar blowout jet

Zhang

Yang

et al. 2018

Sci Rep

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Kelvin–Helmholtz instability (KHI) is a basic physical process in fluids and magnetized plasmas, with applications successfully modelling e.g. exponentially growing instabilities observed at magnetospheric and heliospheric boundaries, in the solar or Earth’s atmosphere and within astrophysical jets. Here, we report the discovery of the KHI in solar blowout jets and analyse the detailed evolution by employing high-resolution data from the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) satellite launched in 2013. The particular jet we focus on is rooted in the surrounding penumbra of the main negative polarity sunspot of Active Region 12365, where the main body of the jet is a super-penumbral structure. At its maximum, the jet has a length of 90 Mm, a width of 19.7 Mm, and its density is about 40 times higher than its surroundings. During the evolution of the jet, a cavity appears near the base of the jet, and bi-directional flows originated from the top and bottom of the cavity start to develop, indicating that magnetic reconnection takes place around the cavity. Two upward flows pass along the left boundary of the jet successively. Next, KHI develops due to a strong velocity shear (∼204 km s−1) between these two flows, and subsequently the smooth left boundary exhibits a sawtooth pattern, evidencing the onset of the instability.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observing Kelvin–Helmholtz instability in solar blowout jet

Zhang

Yang

et al. 2018

Sci Rep

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“…Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations (Tian & Chen 2016;Ni et al 2017) supported the presence of KHIs in various coronal structures. For example, KHIs have been found in solar twisted flux tubes (Zhelyazkov & Zaqarashvili 2012;Murawski et al 2016), along extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) or X-ray jets (Zaqarashvili et al 2015;Zhao et al 2018), in solar spicules (Ajabshirizadeh et al 2015), flares (Fang et al 2016) and prominence (Antolin et al 2015), in coronal loops (Karpen et al 1994;Howson et al 2017), in CMEs (Gómez et al 2016), and solar winds (Zaqarashvili et al 2014). In contrast, space observations also showed evidence of KHIs in the solar atmosphere, which are charactered by vortex-like features due to the supersonic velocities (Berger et al 2010;Johnson et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Two Kinds of Dynamic Behavior in a Quiescent Prominence Observed by the NVST

Shen

Ning

et al. 2018

ApJ

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We present high-resolution observations of two kinds of dynamic behavior in a quiescent prominence using the New Vacuum Solar Telescope, i.e., Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities (KHIs) and small-scale oscillations. The KHIs were identified as rapidly developed vortex-like structures with counter-clockwise/clockwise rotations in the Hα red-wing images at +0.3Å, which were produced by the strong shear-flows motions on the surface/interface of prominence plumes. The KHI growth rates are estimated to be ∼0.0135±0.0004 and ∼0.0138±0.0004. Our observational results further suggest that the shear velocities (i.e, supersonic) of the mass flows are fast enough to produce the strong deformation of the boundary and overcome the restraining surface tension force. This flow-driven instability might play a significant role in the process of plasma transfer in solar prominences. The small-scale oscillations perpendicular to the prominence threads are observed in the Hα line-center images. The oscillatory periods changed non-monotonically and showed two changing patterns, in which one firstly decreased slowly and then it changed to increase, while the other grew fast at the beginning and then it changed to decrease. Both of these two thread oscillations with changing periods were observed to be unstable for an entire cycle, and they were local in nature. All our findings indicate that the small-scale thread oscillations could be magnetohydrodynamic waves in the solar corona.

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“…In the solar corona, KHI has been predicted, through simulations, within solar jets (Ni et al 2017), near jet-like CMEs (Solanki et al 2019), and at the boundaries of CMEs (Gómez et al 2016;Páez et al 2017;Syntelis & Antolin 2019). KHI has been observed in quiescent prominences at heights below 20 Mm, using data from the Solar Optical Telescope (SOT; Tsuneta et al 2008) onboard Hinode (Kosugi et al 2007) by Berger et al (2010) and Ryutova et al (2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

First Direct Imaging of a Kelvin–Helmholtz Instability by PSP/WISPR

Paouris,

Stenborg,

Linton

et al. 2024

ApJ

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We present a comprehensive analysis aimed at proving the hypothesis that a train of small-scale features observed by the Wide-field Imager (WISPR) onboard the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) are the signature of a Kelvin–Helmholtz instability (KHI). These features were seen near the flank of a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) wake between 7.5 R ⊙ and 9.5 R ⊙, lasting for about 30 minutes. The CME was a slow event, associated with a streamer blowout. We analyzed the size of the eddies and found growth during their evolution while maintaining separation distances and alignment typical of Kelvin–Helmholtz vortexes. We then assessed the magnetic field conditions that would make the observation of such an instability plausible. Two methods were used to cross-check our findings. The measured thickness of the boundary layer supports KHI candidacy, and the estimated linear growth rate suggests nonlinear saturation within the expected timescale. We conclude that a KHI is a plausible explanation for the observed features, and therefore that such instabilities might exist in the low and middle solar corona (within ∼15 R ⊙) and can be detected in white light observations. Their observation, however, might be rare due to stringent conditions like the observer’s proximity, suitable viewing circumstances, magnetic field topology, and flow properties. This study highlights the unique capability of PSP/WISPR in observing such phenomena, especially as PSP perihelia reach closer distances to the Sun.

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Simulations of the Kelvin–helmholtz Instability Driven by Coronal Mass Ejections in the Turbulent Corona

Cited by 8 publications

References 36 publications

Observing Kelvin–Helmholtz instability in solar blowout jet

Observing Kelvin–Helmholtz instability in solar blowout jet

Two Kinds of Dynamic Behavior in a Quiescent Prominence Observed by the NVST

First Direct Imaging of a Kelvin–Helmholtz Instability by PSP/WISPR

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