The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope Captures Ambient Shock Waves Ignited by Magnetic Vortices
11 affiliations
- 1European Space Agency (ESA)
- 2National Solar Observatory
- 3Kiepenheuer-Institute for Solar Physics (KIS)
- 4Queen’s University Belfast
- 5Istituto ricerche solari Aldo e Cele Daccò (IRSOL)
- 6University of Zuric
- 7University of Oslo
- 8University of Sheffield
- 9Eötvös Loránd University
- 10Hungarian Solar Physics Foundation
- 11California State University Northridge
Abstract
One of the first high-cadence chromospheric image sequences recorded with the recently commissioned Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) has revealed propagating arc-shaped bright fronts of a few hundred kilometers width. These bright fronts maintain their arc shape over up to one minute, travel with apparent horizontal speeds of ∼8 km s ⁻¹ , and originate from chromospheric bright grains seen at the center of the arc. We identify photospheric G -band bright points underneath the chromospheric bright grains, which are typically the signature of small-scale magnetic flux concentrations. The G -band bright points are found to interact with colocated vortices prior to the appearance of the chromospheric bright fronts. Images synthesized from three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations show a striking similarity with the discovered phenomenon and reveal that the arc-shaped bright fronts arise from essentially acoustic, weak shock fronts that propagate in the ambient medium, seemingly triggered by the vortex dynamics of the underlying magnetic flux concentration. In this work, we provide the first hints of a hitherto unknown magnetohydrodynamic process by which vortex-driven torsional Alfvén pulses couple to predominantly acoustic waves that steepen into shocks and dissipate their energies. The detected number density and frequency of these events are at least a factor 10 too small to be a major source of solar chromospheric heating but simulations show a seven times higher number density. We therefore expect to discover many more events with tailored narrow band observations.
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BibTeX
@article{fischer2026daniel,
title = {{The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope Captures Ambient Shock Waves Ignited by Magnetic Vortices}},
author = {Catherine E. Fischer and Friedrich Wöger and Gangadharan Vigeesh and Peter H. Keys and Oskar Steiner and José Roberto Canivete Cuissa and Shahin Jafarzadeh and Robertus Erdélyi and David B. Jess and Mihalis Mathioudakis and Alexandra Tritschler and Damian J. Christian and Andre Fehlmann and Sarah Jaeggli and Thomas Rimmele},
journal = {The Astrophysical Journal},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/aea081},
url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aea081},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope Captures Ambient Shock Waves Ignited by Magnetic Vortices
AU - Catherine E. Fischer
AU - Friedrich Wöger
AU - Gangadharan Vigeesh
AU - Peter H. Keys
AU - Oskar Steiner
AU - José Roberto Canivete Cuissa
AU - Shahin Jafarzadeh
AU - Robertus Erdélyi
AU - David B. Jess
AU - Mihalis Mathioudakis
AU - Alexandra Tritschler
AU - Damian J. Christian
AU - Andre Fehlmann
AU - Sarah Jaeggli
AU - Thomas Rimmele
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/09
JO - The Astrophysical Journal
DO - 10.3847/1538-4357/aea081
UR - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aea081
AB - One of the first high-cadence chromospheric image sequences recorded with the recently commissioned Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) has revealed propagating arc-shaped bright fronts of a few hundred kilometers width. These bright fronts maintain their arc shape over up to one minute, travel with apparent horizontal speeds of ∼8 km s ⁻¹ , and originate from chromospheric bright grains seen at the center of the arc. We identify photospheric G -band bright points underneath the chromospheric bright grains, which are typically the signature of small-scale magnetic flux concentrations. The G -band bright points are found to interact with colocated vortices prior to the appearance of the chromospheric bright fronts. Images synthesized from three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations show a striking similarity with the discovered phenomenon and reveal that the arc-shaped bright fronts arise from essentially acoustic, weak shock fronts that propagate in the ambient medium, seemingly triggered by the vortex dynamics of the underlying magnetic flux concentration. In this work, we provide the first hints of a hitherto unknown magnetohydrodynamic process by which vortex-driven torsional Alfvén pulses couple to predominantly acoustic waves that steepen into shocks and dissipate their energies. The detected number density and frequency of these events are at least a factor 10 too small to be a major source of solar chromospheric heating but simulations show a seven times higher number density. We therefore expect to discover many more events with tailored narrow band observations.
SN - 0004-637X
SN - 1538-4357
ER -