Letter to the Editor

Vertical oscillations of a coronal loop observed by TRACE

Max-Planck Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, 37191 Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany (Previously known as MPI für Aeronomie.)

Corresponding author: T. J. Wang, wangtj@linmpi.mpg.de

Received: 4 May 2004
Accepted: 26 May 2004

Abstract

We report on a loop oscillation event observed by TRACE in the 195 Å bandpass at the solar limb. The difference images reveal the first evidence for vertical kink oscillations of the loop, i.e., alternately expanding and shrinking motions, in contrast to horizontal transverse loop oscillations reported before, which exhibit swaying motions. Based on the 3D geometry of the oscillating loop derived from the observation by fitting with a circular or elliptical loop model, we simulate these two kinds of global kink modes and find that only the vertical oscillations produce a signature in the difference images in agreement with the observations. We also find that the oscillating loop is associated with intensity variations. Based on the measured displacement amplitude, the simulation predicts an intensity variation of about 13% due to density changes produced by the change of the loop length. The observed intensity changes have the same sign but are considerably larger than the predictions although the error bars are also large. This suggests that these oscillations are compressible.