Beam electrons as a source of Hα flare ribbons.

The observations of solar flare onsets show rapid increase of hard and soft X-rays, ultra-violet emission with large Doppler blue shifts associated with plasma upflows, and Hα hydrogen emission with red shifts up to 1-4 Å. Modern radiative hydrodynamic models account well for blue-shifted emission, but struggle to reproduce closely the red-shifted Hα lines. Here we present a joint hydrodynamic and radiative model showing that during the first seconds of beam injection the effects caused by beam electrons can reproduce Hα line profiles with large red-shifts closely matching those observed in a C1.5 flare by the Swedish Solar Telescope. The model also accounts closely for timing and magnitude of upward motion to the corona observed 29 s after the event onset in 171 Å by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly/Solar Dynamics Observatory.

High-frequency torsional Alfvén waves as an energy source for coronal heating.

The existence of the Sun's hot atmosphere and the solar wind acceleration continues to be an outstanding problem in solar-astrophysics. Although magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) modes and dissipation of magnetic energy contribute to heating and the mass cycle of the solar atmosphere, yet direct evidence of such processes often generates debate. Ground-based 1-m Swedish Solar Telescope (SST)/CRISP, Hα 6562.8 Å observations reveal, for the first time, the ubiquitous presence of high frequency (~12-42 mHz) torsional motions in thin spicular-type structures in the chromosphere. We detect numerous oscillating flux tubes on 10 June 2014 between 07:17 UT to 08:08 UT in a quiet-Sun field-of-view of 60" × 60" (1" = 725 km). Stringent numerical model shows that these observations resemble torsional Alfvén waves associated with high frequency drivers which contain a huge amount of energy (~105 W m-2) in the chromosphere. Even after partial reflection from the transition region, a significant amount of energy (~103 W m-2) is transferred onto the overlying corona. We find that oscillating tubes serve as substantial sources of Alfvén wave generation that provide sufficient Poynting flux not only to heat the corona but also to originate the supersonic solar wind.

Magnetic tornadoes as energy channels into the solar corona.

Heating the outer layers of the magnetically quiet solar atmosphere to more than one million kelvin and accelerating the solar wind requires an energy flux of approximately 100 to 300 watts per square metre, but how this energy is transferred and dissipated there is a puzzle and several alternative solutions have been proposed. Braiding and twisting of magnetic field structures, which is caused by the convective flows at the solar surface, was suggested as an efficient mechanism for atmospheric heating. Convectively driven vortex flows that harbour magnetic fields are observed to be abundant in the photosphere (the visible surface of the Sun). Recently, corresponding swirling motions have been discovered in the chromosphere, the atmospheric layer sandwiched between the photosphere and the corona. Here we report the imprints of these chromospheric swirls in the transition region and low corona, and identify them as observational signatures of rapidly rotating magnetic structures. These ubiquitous structures, which resemble super-tornadoes under solar conditions, reach from the convection zone into the upper solar atmosphere and provide an alternative mechanism for channelling energy from the lower into the upper solar atmosphere.