Alfvenic resonances on solar spicules

Abstract

It is suggested that twisting and heating of solar spicules can be produced by Alfven waves which enter the spicule from below. The spicule is treated as a region of constant Alfven speed which is bounded above by a region of much higher Alfven speed (the corona) and below by a region of exponentially increasing Alfven speed (the photosphere and chromosphere). It is shown how the spicule can act as a resonant cavity. The transmission of the waves into the cavity is analytically determined to be enhanced at certain resonant frequencies. With reasonable spicule parameters, and assuming the spicule damping to be moderately large, it is found that twisting velocities of approximately 20-30 km/s can be induced on the spicule. It is suggested that the Alfven waves are dissipated via a turbulent cascade of their energy to higher wavenumbers. It is shown that the waves can thereby heat the spicules to the observed temperatures. It is further suggested that the continued input of energy can explain why H-alpha spicules fade, since the predicted heating rate is sufficient to heat the spicules to temperatures at which the hydrogen is fully ionized; thus H-alpha spicules may evolve into EUV spicules.