The Universality of Power Law Slopes in the Solar Photosphere and Transition Region Observed with HMI and IRIS

We compare the size distributions of self-organized criticality (SOC) systems in the solar photosphere and the transition region, using magnetogram data from Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) and Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS)} data. For each dataset we fit a combination of a Gaus...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2023-02
Main Authors: Aschwanden, Markus J, Nhalil, Nived Vilangot
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Datasets
Distribution functions
Granulation
Magnetic flux
Normal distribution
Photosphere
Power law
Random noise
Size distribution
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Summary:We compare the size distributions of self-organized criticality (SOC) systems in the solar photosphere and the transition region, using magnetogram data from Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) and Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS)} data. For each dataset we fit a combination of a Gaussian and a power law size distribution function, which yields information on four different physical processes: (i) Gaussian random noise in IRIS data; (ii) spicular events in the plages of the transition region (described by power law size distribution in IRIS data); (iii) salt-and-pepper small-scale magnetic structures (described by the random noise in HMI magnetograms); and (iv) magnetic reconnection processes in flares and nanoflares (described by power law size distributions in HMI data). We find a high correlation (CCC=0.90) between IRIS and HMI data. Datasets with magnetic flux balance are generally found to match the SOC-predicted power law slope a_F=1.80 (for mean fluxes F), but exceptions occur due to arbitrary choices of the HMI field-of-view. The matching cases confirm the universality of SOC-inferred flux size distributions, and agree with the results of Parnell et al.~(2009), a_F=1.85 +/- 0.14.
ISSN:2331-8422