Solar Vortices as Conduits for Magnetoacoustic Waves: Multilayer Coupling and Their Role in Atmospheric Heating
5 affiliations
- 1University of Sheffield
- 2Institute for Astronomy
- 3Northumbria University
- 4Queen’s University Belfast
- 5University of Oslo
Abstract
Vortices are widespread throughout the solar atmosphere and commonly interpreted as channels for Alfvén wave energy transport. However, this interpretation has mostly been inferred from the apparent alignment of rotating plasma structures with the magnetic field, rather than direct evidence of the nature of the waves involved. We present observational and numerical evidence that solar vortices act as coherent waveguides dominated by magnetoacoustic waves in the lower atmosphere, combining high-resolution SST observations and Bifrost simulation data. Using Normalised Mutual Information and Jensen-Shannon Divergence as coupling diagnostics, we provide the first observational identification of a solar vortex footpoint through information-theoretic metrics, locating it in the photospheric region of highest shared information with the chromospheric swirl. Spectral proper orthogonal decomposition separates dominant dynamical patterns, allowing us to identify sausage, kink, and helical wave modes propagating along vortex structures. In the Bifrost simulation, we find no evidence for torsional Alfvén waves supported by vortices below 1 Mm. Instead, the waves supported by vortices are magnetoacoustic, and their energy transport is predominantly compressive in the lower atmosphere, with the magnetic component becoming dominant only at greater heights. Even the compressive wave component alone reaches nanoflare-level magnitudes (∼10 ²⁵ erg), indicating that vortex-associated compressive perturbations may provide an energetically relevant contribution in regimes where magnetic-energy transport dominates. The recovery of sausage and helical modes in temperature perturbations shows that these modes carry a thermal signature, further supporting their relevance for chromospheric energy transport and localized heating.
Related
- Design of an atmospheric dispersion corrector and double scrambler for improved fiber coupling and illumination uniformity for the HET HRS
- Adding slow magnetoacoustic mode to the HLL-type multi-state approximate Riemann solution
- Multi-Height Spectropolarimetric Signatures of Magnetoacoustic Waves in Solar Plage
- Planet formation at the inner edge of the dead zone. II. Outbursts, rings, vortices, and planetesimal formation
- Kelvin-Helmholtz vortices in the Martian +E hemisphere downstream of crustal magnetic anomalies
BibTeX
@article{silva2026solar,
title = {{Solar Vortices as Conduits for Magnetoacoustic Waves: Multilayer Coupling and Their Role in Atmospheric Heating}},
author = {Suzana de Souza e Almeida Silva and Giannis Dakanalis and Luiz A. C. A. Schiavo and Kostas Tziotziou and Shahin Jafarzadeh and Tiago M. D. Pereira and Georgia Tsiropoula and Gary Verth and Istvan Ballai and Iñaki Esnaola and James A. McLaughlin and Gert J. J. Botha and Viktor Fedun},
journal = {The Astrophysical Journal},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/aea842},
url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aea842},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Solar Vortices as Conduits for Magnetoacoustic Waves: Multilayer Coupling and Their Role in Atmospheric Heating
AU - Suzana de Souza e Almeida Silva
AU - Giannis Dakanalis
AU - Luiz A. C. A. Schiavo
AU - Kostas Tziotziou
AU - Shahin Jafarzadeh
AU - Tiago M. D. Pereira
AU - Georgia Tsiropoula
AU - Gary Verth
AU - Istvan Ballai
AU - Iñaki Esnaola
AU - James A. McLaughlin
AU - Gert J. J. Botha
AU - Viktor Fedun
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/21
JO - The Astrophysical Journal
DO - 10.3847/1538-4357/aea842
UR - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aea842
AB - Vortices are widespread throughout the solar atmosphere and commonly interpreted as channels for Alfvén wave energy transport. However, this interpretation has mostly been inferred from the apparent alignment of rotating plasma structures with the magnetic field, rather than direct evidence of the nature of the waves involved. We present observational and numerical evidence that solar vortices act as coherent waveguides dominated by magnetoacoustic waves in the lower atmosphere, combining high-resolution SST observations and Bifrost simulation data. Using Normalised Mutual Information and Jensen-Shannon Divergence as coupling diagnostics, we provide the first observational identification of a solar vortex footpoint through information-theoretic metrics, locating it in the photospheric region of highest shared information with the chromospheric swirl. Spectral proper orthogonal decomposition separates dominant dynamical patterns, allowing us to identify sausage, kink, and helical wave modes propagating along vortex structures. In the Bifrost simulation, we find no evidence for torsional Alfvén waves supported by vortices below 1 Mm. Instead, the waves supported by vortices are magnetoacoustic, and their energy transport is predominantly compressive in the lower atmosphere, with the magnetic component becoming dominant only at greater heights. Even the compressive wave component alone reaches nanoflare-level magnitudes (∼10 ²⁵ erg), indicating that vortex-associated compressive perturbations may provide an energetically relevant contribution in regimes where magnetic-energy transport dominates. The recovery of sausage and helical modes in temperature perturbations shows that these modes carry a thermal signature, further supporting their relevance for chromospheric energy transport and localized heating.
SN - 0004-637X
SN - 1538-4357
ER -