They found that the wave amplification process can be attributed to the formation of an 'acoustic resonator', where significant changes in temperature between the surface of the Sun and its outer corona create boundaries that are partially reflective and act to trap the waves, allowing them to intensify and dramatically grow in strength. The team then used super computers to analyse the data through simulations. This is similar to how a complex musical ensemble is deconstructed into basic notes and frequencies by visualising its musical score." The timescales over which they evolve were benchmarked, which allowed the wave frequencies of the Sun to be recorded. "The variations in the elements allowed the speeds of the Sun's plasma to be uncovered. ![]() "By breaking the Sun's light up into its basic colours, we were able to examine the behaviour of certain elements from the periodic table within its atmosphere, including silicon (formed close to the Sun's surface), calcium and helium (formed in the chromosphere where the wave amplification is most apparent). He explains: "This new understanding of wave motion may help scientists uncover the missing piece in the puzzle of why the outer layers of the Sun are hotter than its surface, despite being further from the heat source. The experts formed a consortium called "Waves in the Lower Solar Atmosphere (WaLSA)" to carry out the research and used advanced high-resolution observations from the National Science Foundation's Dunn Solar Telescope, New Mexico, to study the waves.ĭr David Jess from the School of Mathematics and Physics at Queen's led the team of experts. The team, which was led by Queen's, included 13 scientists, spanning five countries and 11 research institutes including University of Exeter Northumbria University the European Space Agency Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Spain University of Oslo, Norway the Italian Space Agency and California State University Northridge, USA. Therefore, understanding how the wave motion is generated and spread throughout the Sun is of huge importance to researchers. Scientists have accepted for a long time that magnetic waves channel energy from the Sun's vast interior energy reservoir, which is powered by nuclear fusion, up into the outer regions of its atmosphere. However, this is the opposite of what seems to happen on the Sun - its outer layers are warmer than the heat source at its surface. ![]() Usually the closer we are to a heat source, the warmer we feel. ![]() The corona's high temperatures have also always been a mystery. For more than 60 years observations of the Sun have shown that as the magnetic waves leave the interior of the Sun they grow in strength but until now there has been no solid observational evidence as to why this was the case.
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