The Spectroscopic Signature of Quasi-periodic Upflows in Active Region Timeseries

Abstract

Quasi-periodic propagating disturbances are frequently observed in coronal intensity image sequences. These disturbances have historically been interpreted as being the signature of slow-mode magnetoacoustic waves propagating into the corona. The detailed analysis of Hinode EUV Imaging Spectrometer (EIS) timeseries observations of an active region (known to contain propagating disturbances) shows strongly correlated, quasi-periodic, oscillations in intensity, Doppler shift, and line width. No frequency doubling is visible in the latter. The enhancements in the moments of the line profile are generally accompanied by a faint, quasi-periodically occurring, excess emission at ~100 km/s in the blue wing of coronal emission lines. The correspondence of quasi-periodic excess wing emission and the moments of the line profile indicates that repetitive high-velocity upflows are responsible for the oscillatory behavior observed. Furthermore, we show that the same quasi-periodic upflows can be directly identified in a simultaneous image sequence obtained by the Hinode X-Ray Telescope (XRT). These results are consistent with the recent assertion of De Pontieu & McIntosh (2010) that the wave interpretation of the data is not unique. Indeed, given that several instances are seen to propagate along the direction of the EIS slit that clearly show in-phase, quasi-periodic variations of intensity, velocity, width (without frequency doubling), and blue wing enhanced emission this dataset would appear to provide a compelling example that upflows are more likely to be the main cause of the quasi-periodicities observed here, as such correspondences are hard to reconcile in the wave paradigm.