ESP Online Seminar: Frequency-dependent Damping of Slow Magneto-acoustic Waves in Sunspots (K. Prasad )

Propagating slow magneto-acoustic waves are regularly observed in the solar corona, particularly in sunspot related loop structures. These waves exhibit rapid damping as they propagate along the loops. Several physical and geometrical effects were found to produce the observed decay in the wave amplitude. It has also been shown that the damping is frequency dependent. A majority of the observed characteristics have been attributed to damping by thermal conduction in the solar corona. Although it is believed that these waves originate in the photosphere, their damping behaviour in the sub-coronal layers is relatively less studied. Using high spatial and temporal resolution images of a sunspot, we investigated propagation and damping characteristics of slow magnetoacoustic waves up to transition region heights. The major conclusions from this study will be discussed in the talk which include: 1) The energy flux in slow waves estimated from the relative amplitudes decays gradually right from the photosphere even when the oscillation amplitude is increasing. 2) The damping displayed by slow waves is frequency dependent well below coronal heights. 3) A spatial comparison of power spectra across the umbra highlights enhancement of high-frequency waves near the umbral center.