Intensity oscillation in the corona as observed during the Total Solar Eclipse of 29 March 2006

Abstract

We obtained the images of the eastern part of the solar corona in the Fe xiv 530.3 nm (green) and Fe x 637.4 nm (red) coronal emission lines during the total solar eclipse of 29 March 2006 at Manavgat, Antalya, Turkey. The images were obtained using a 35 cm Meade telescope equipped with Peltier cooled 2k × 2k CCD and 0.3 nm pass-band interference filters at the rates of 2.95 s (exposure times of 100 ms) and 2.0 s (exposure times of 300 ms) in the Fe xiv and Fe x emission lines, respectively. The analysis of the data indicates intensity variations at some locations with period of strongest power around 27 s for the green line and 20 s for the red line. These results confirm earlier findings of variations in the continuum intensity with periods in the range of 5 to 56 seconds by Singh et al., (1997). The wavelet analysis has been used to identify significant intensity oscillations at all pixels within our field of view. Significant oscillations with high probability estimates were detected for some locations only. These locations seem to follow boundary of active region and in the neighbourhood, rather than within the loops themselves. These intensity oscillations may be caused by fast magnetosonic waves in the solar corona and partly account for heating of the plasma in the corona.