Synchronization of Small-scale Magnetic Features, Blinkers, and Coronal Bright Points

Abstract

Abstract We investigate the relationship between different transients such as blinkers detected in images taken at 304 Å, extreme ultraviolet coronal bright points (ECBPs) at 193 Å, X-ray coronal bright points (XCBPs) at 94 Å on the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly, and magnetic features observed by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager during 10 yr of solar cycle 24. An automatic identification method is applied to detect transients, and the YAFTA algorithm is used to extract the magnetic features. Using 10 yr of data, we detect in total 7,483,827 blinkers, 2,082,162 ECBPs, and 1,188,839 XCBPs, respectively, with their birth rate of about 1.1 × 10−18 m−2 s−1, 3.8 × 10−19 m−2 s−1, and 1.5 × 10−19 m−2 s−1. We find that about 80% of blinkers are observed at the boundaries of supergranules, and 57% (34%) are associated with ECBPs (XCBPs). We further find that about 61%–80% of transients are associated with the isolated magnetic poles in the quiet Sun and that the normalized maximum intensities of the transients are correlated with the photospheric magnetic flux of poles via a power law. These results conspicuously show that these transients have a magnetic origin and their synchronized behavior provides further clues toward the understanding of the coupling among the different layers of the solar atmosphere. Our study further reveals that the appearance of these transients is strongly anticorrelated with the sunspots’ cycle. This finding can be relevant for a better understanding of solar dynamo and magnetic structures at different scales during the solar cycle.