Search results for "Physics::Space Physics"
showing 10 items of 357 documents
Probing Models of Extended Gravity using Gravity Probe B and LARES experiments
2014
We consider models of Extended Gravity and in particular, generic models containing scalar-tensor and higher-order curvature terms, as well as a model derived from noncommutative spectral geometry. Studying, in the weak-field approximation, the geodesic and Lense-Thirring processions, we impose constraints on the free parameters of such models by using the recent experimental results of the Gravity Probe B and LARES satellites.
Simultaneous Kepler/K2 and XMM‐Newton observations of superflares in the Pleiades
2019
Proceeding of a contributed talk given at the meeting: "TIME-DOMAIN ASTRONOMY: A HIGH ENERGY VIEW" held at ESAC, Madrid, 13 - 15 JUNE 2018 Together with coronal mass ejection, flares are the most energetic stellar magnetic events, ignited by a sudden release of magnetic energy, which triggers a cascade of interconnected phenomena, each resulting in emission in different bands. For this reason, flares are intrinsic multiwavelength phenomena. In particular, optical and soft X-ray emission probes two different events occurring during flares: the heating of plasma in the upper photosphere at the footpoints of the magnetic loops and the heating and cooling of the plasma confined in the loops in …
Modeling magnetohydrodynamics and non equilibrium SoHO/UVCS line emission of CME shocks
2008
We provide a guideline to interpret the UVCS emission lines (in particular O VI and Si XII) during shock wave propagation in the outer solar corona. We use a numerical MHD model performing a set of simulations of shock waves generated in the corona and from the result we compute the plasma emission for the O VI and Si XII including the effects of NEI. We analyze the radiative and spectral properties of our model with the support of a detailed radiation model including Doppler dimming and an analytical model for shocks, and, finally, we synthesize the expected O VI 1032A line profile. We explain several spectral features of the observations like the absence of discontinuities in the O VI emi…
Are Coronae of Late‐Type Stars Made of Solar‐like Structures? The X‐Ray Surface Flux versus Hardness Ratio Diagram and the Pressure‐Temperature Corre…
2004
This work is dedicated to the solar-stellar connection, i.e., the close similarity of the Sun and late-type stars; in particular, this work shows that stellar coronae can be composed of X-ray-emitting structures similar to those present in the solar corona. To this end we use a large set of ROSAT PSPC observations of late-type stars of all spectral types and activity levels and a large set of solar X-ray data collected with Yohkoh SXT. Solar data have been analyzed and formatted to study the Sun as an X-ray star; they include observations of the solar corona at various phases of the solar cycle and data on various kinds of X-ray coronal structures, from flares to the background corona, i.e.…
Weak Flares on M-Dwarfs
2010
We have investigated the physics of flares in M-dwarfs by means of optical/X-ray observations and modeling. The great efficiency of current optical spectrographs and detectors has allowed us to detect and analyze a great number of non white-light flares with intermediate spectral resolution and high temporal resolution. Although this kind of flares is the most typical on the Sun, few such events have been so far recorded on stars. We have obtained the physical parameters of the chromospheric flaring plasma (electron temperature, electron density, optical depth and temperature of the underlying source) by using a model that minimizes the difference between the observed Balmer decrements and …
X-ray flares on the UV Ceti-type star CC Eridani: a "peculiar" time-evolution of spectral parameters
2007
Context: Weak flares are supposed to be an important heating agent of the outer layers of stellar atmospheres. However, due to instrumental limitations, only large X-ray flares have been studied in detail until now. Aims: We used an XMM-Newton observation of the very active BY-Dra type binary star CC Eri in order to investigate the properties of two flares that are weaker than those typically studied in the literature. Methods: We performed time-resolved spectroscopy of the data taken with the EPIC-PN CCD camera. A multi-temperature model was used to fit the spectra. We inferred the size of the flaring loops using the density-temperature diagram. The loop scaling laws were applied for deriv…
Coronal loop hydrodynamics. The solar flare observedon November 12 1980 revisited: the UV line emission
2001
We revisit a well-studied solar flare whose X-ray emission originating from a simple loop structure was observed by most of the instruments on board SMM on November 12 1980. The X-ray emission of this flare, as observed with the XRP, was successfully modeled previously. Here we include a detailed modeling of the transition region and we compare the hydrodynamic results with the UVSP observations in two EUV lines, measured in areas smaller than the XRP rasters, covering only some portions of the flaring loop (the top and the foot-points). The single loop hydrodynamic model, which fits well the evolution of coronal lines (those observed with the XRP and the \FeXXI 1354.1 \AA line observed wit…
A comparison between the X-ray variable Sun and solar-like main sequence stars
2003
We analyze the time variations of the solar X-ray luminosity observed with Yohkoh/SXT with the aim to compare the X-ray variability of the Sun with that of the other solar-like main sequence stars as function of the relevant time scales. Since the observational set-up and strategies used to observe the Sun dier from those used for the other stars, we have explored the solar X-ray variability properties starting from the available solar data, trying to reproduce the observational procedures adopted for the stars. We have quantified how the solar variability amplitude increases with the explored time scales and found that solar-cycle variability can contribute at most up to 60% to the spread …
The Solar Mass Ejection Imager and Its Heliospheric Imaging Legacy
2013
The Solar Mass Ejection Imager (SMEI) was the first of a new class of helio- spheric and astronomical white-light imager. A heliospheric imager operates in a fashion similar to coronagraphs, in that it observes solar photospheric white light that has been Thomson scattered by free electrons in the solar wind plasma. Compared with traditional
First imaging of corotating interaction regions using the STEREO spacecraft
2008
Plasma parcels are observed propagating from the Sun out to the large coronal heights monitored by the Heliospheric Imagers (HI) instruments onboard the NASA STEREO spacecraft during September 2007. The source region of these out-flowing parcels is found to corotate with the Sun and to be rooted near the western boundary of an equatorial coronal hole. These plasma enhancements evolve during their propagation through the HI cameras' fields of view and only becoming fully developed in the outer camera field of view. We provide evidence that HI is observing the formation of a Corotating Interaction Region (CIR) where fast solar wind from the equatorial coronal hole is interacting with the slow…