Extreme-ultraviolet fine structure and variability associated with coronal rain revealed by Solar Orbiter/EUI HRI_EUV and SPICE^⋆

¹ Department of Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK
e-mail: patrick.antolin@northumbria.ac.uk
² Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, 91405 Orsay, France
³ Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 3, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
⁴ Solar-Terrestrial Centre of Excellence, SIDC, Royal Observatory of Belgium, Ringlaan 3 Av. Circulaire, 1180 Brussels, Belgium
⁵ Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos, World Radiation Center, 7260 Davos Dorf, Switzerland
⁶ ETH Zürich, Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 27, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
⁷ European Space Agency, ESTEC, Keplerlaan 1, PO Box 299 2200 AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands
⁸ UCL-Mullard Space Science Laboratory, Holmbury St. Mary, Dorking, Surrey RH5 6NT, UK
⁹ Southwest Research Institute, 1050 Walnut Street, Suite 300, Boulder, CO 80302, USA
¹⁰ Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics, Moscow State University, 119992 Moscow, Russia
¹¹ Sorbonne Université, Observatoire de Paris – PSL, École Polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, CNRS, Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas (LPP), 4 Place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France
¹² Rosseland Centre for Solar Physics, University of Oslo, PO Box 1029 Blindern, 0315 Oslo, Norway
¹³ Laboratoire Charles Fabry, Institut d’Optique Graduate School, Université Paris-Saclay, 91127 Palaiseau Cedex, France
¹⁴ Centre Spatial de Liège, Université de Liège, Av. du Pré-Aily B29, 4031 Angleur, Belgium
¹⁵ AESTER COGNITIO, 27 Rue de Naples, 75008 Paris, France
¹⁶ LATMOS, CNRS, UVSQ, Sorbonne Université, 78280 Guyancourt, France
¹⁷ Centre for mathematical Plasma Astrophysics, Department of Mathematics, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200B bus 2400, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
¹⁸ Institute of Physics, University of Maria Curie-Skłodowska, Pl. M. Curie-Skłodowskiej 5, 20-031 Lublin, Poland
¹⁹ Astrophysics Research Centre, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University Belfast, University Road, Belfast, BT7 1NN Northern Ireland, UK

Received: 29 January 2023
Accepted: 25 May 2023

Abstract

Context. Coronal rain is the most dramatic cooling phenomenon of the solar corona. Recent observations in the visible and UV spectrum have shown that coronal rain is a pervasive phenomenon in active regions. Its strong link with coronal heating through the thermal non-equilibrium (TNE) – thermal instability (TI) scenario makes it an essential diagnostic tool for the heating properties. Another puzzling feature of the solar corona in addition to the heating is its filamentary structure and variability, particularly in the extreme UV (EUV).

Aims. We aim to identify observable features of the TNE-TI scenario underlying coronal rain at small and large spatial scales to understand the role it plays in the solar corona.

Methods. We used EUV datasets at an unprecedented spatial resolution of ≈240 km from the High Resolution Imager (HRI) in the EUV (HRI_EUV) of the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) and SPICE on board Solar Orbiter from the perihelion in March and April 2022.

Results. EUV absorption features produced by coronal rain are detected at scales as small as 260 km. As the rain falls, heating and compression is produced immediately downstream, leading to a small EUV brightening that accompanies the fall and produces a fireball phenomenon in the solar corona. Just prior to impact, a flash-like EUV brightening downstream of the rain, lasting a few minutes, is observed for the fastest events. For the first time, we detect the atmospheric response to the impact of the rain on the chromosphere, and it consists of upward-propagating rebound shocks and flows that partly reheat the loop. The observed widths of the rain clumps are 500 ± 200 km. They exhibit a broad velocity distribution of 10 − 150 km s⁻¹and peak below 50 km s⁻¹. Coronal strands of similar widths are observed along the same loops. They are co-spatial with cool filamentary structure seen with SPICE, which we interpret as the condensation corona transition region. Prior to the appearance of the rain, sequential loop brightenings are detected in gradually cooler lines from coronal to chromospheric temperatures. This matches the expected cooling. Despite the large rain showers, most cannot be detected in AIA 171 in quadrature, indicating that line-of-sight effects play a major role in the visibility of coronal rain. The AIA 304 and SPICE observations still reveal that only a small fraction of the rain can be captured by HRI_EUV.

Conclusions. Coronal rain generates EUV structure and variability over a wide range of scales, from coronal loops to the smallest resolvable scales. This establishes the major role that TNE-TI plays in the observed EUV morphology and variability of the corona.