Letter to the Editor

Propagation of transverse waves in the solar chromosphere probed at different heights with ALMA sub-bands

¹ Rosseland Centre for Solar Physics, University of Oslo, Postboks 1029 Blindern, 0315 Oslo, Norway
² Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Oslo, Postboks 1029 Blindern, 0315 Oslo, Norway
e-mail: j.c.g.gomez@astro.uio.no
³ Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 3, 37077 Göttingen, Germany

Received: 30 June 2022
Accepted: 20 August 2022

Abstract

The Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA) has provided us with an excellent diagnostic tool for studies of the dynamics of the Solar chromosphere, albeit through a single receiver band at one time presently. Each ALMA band consists of four sub-bands that are comprised of several spectral channels. To date, however, the spectral domain has been neglected in favour of ensuring optimal imaging, so that time-series observations have been mostly limited to full-band data products, thereby limiting studies to a single chromospheric layer. Here, we report the first observations of a dynamical event (i.e., wave propagation) for which the ALMA Band 3 data (centred at 3 mm; 100 GHz) is split into a lower and an upper sideband. In principle, this approach is aimed at mapping slightly different layers in the Solar atmosphere. The side-band data were reduced together with the Solar ALMA Pipeline (SoAP), resulting in time series of brightness-temperature maps for each side-band. Through a phase analysis of a magnetically quiet region, where purely acoustic waves are expected to dominate, the average height difference between the two side-bands is estimated as 73 ± 16 km. Furthermore, we examined the propagation of transverse waves in small-scale bright structures by means of wavelet phase analysis between oscillations at the two atmospheric heights. We find 6% of the waves to be standing, while 54% and 46% of the remaining waves are propagating upwards and downwards, respectively, with absolute propagating speeds on the order of ≈96 km s⁻¹, resulting in a mean energy flux of 3800 W m².