Excitation of Oscillations in the Magnetic Network on the Sun

Abstract

We examine the excitation of oscillations in the magnetic network of the Sun through the footpoint motion of photospheric magnetic flux tubes located in intergranular lanes. The motion is derived from a time series of high-resolution G-band and continuum filtergrams using an object-tracking technique. We model the response of the flux tube to the footpoint motion in terms of the Klein-Gordon equation, which is solved analytically as an initial value problem for transverse (kink) waves. We compute the wave energy flux in upward-propagating transverse waves. In general we find that the injection of energy into the chromosphere occurs in short-duration pulses, which would lead to a time variability in chromospheric emission that is incompatible with observations. Therefore, we consider the effects of turbulent convective flows on flux tubes in intergranular lanes. The turbulent flows are simulated by adding high-frequency motions (periods 5-50 s) with an amplitude of 1 km s-1. The latter are simulated by adding random velocity fluctuations to the observationally determined velocities. In this case, we find that the energy flux is much less intermittent and can in principle carry adequate energy for chromospheric heating.