C

Abstract

This work focuses on the first results from the identification and characterization of periodic plasma density fluctuations in the outer corona, observed in STEREO-A COR1 white-light image time series. A two-dimensional reconstruction of the spatial distribution and temporal evolution of the coronal fluctuation power has been performed over the whole plane of the sky, from 1.4 to 4.0 R . The adopted diagnostic tool is based on wavelet transforms. This technique, with respect to the standard Fourier analysis, has the advantage of localizing non-persistent fluctuating features and exploring variations of the relating wavelet power in both space and time. The map of the variance of the coronal brightness clearly outlines intermittent spatially coherent fluctuating features, localized along, or adjacent to, the strongest magnetic field lines. In most cases, they do not correspond to the visible coronal structures in the brightness maps. The results obtained provide a scenario in which the solar corona shows quasi-periodic, non-stationary density variations characterized by a wide range of temporal and spatial scales and strongly confined by the magnetic field topology. In addition, structures fluctuating with larger power are larger in size and evolve more slowly. The characteristic periodicities of the fluctuations are comparable to their lifetimes. This suggests that plasma fluctuations lasting only one or two wave periods and initially characterized by a single dominant periodicity either rapidly decay into a turbulent mixed flow via nonlinear interactions with other plasma modes, or they are damped by thermal conduction. The periodic non-stationary coronal fluctuations outlined by the closed field lines at low and mid latitudes might be associated with the existence of slow standing magneto-acoustic waves excited by the convective supergranular motion. The fluctuating ray-like structures observed along open field lines appear to be linked either to the intermittent nature of the processes underlying the generation of magnetic reconnection in the polar regions or to the oscillatory transverse displacements of the coronal ray itself.