Abstract
A new processing method applied to Atmospheric Imaging Assembly/Solar Dynamic Observatory observations reveals continuous propagating faint motions throughout the solar corona. The amplitudes are small, typically 2% of the background, on the order of 2-10 DN/s. In this presentation, results for a full hours’ worth of data is presented for four AIA channels for a region near disk center during 2015/03/21. Averaged over the hour, the small-scale motions are seen to trace the underlying large-scale magnetic field. The intricate motion vector field describes large-scale linear (or coherent) regions that tend to converge at narrow corridors. Large-scale vortices can also be seen. The hotter channels have larger-scale coherent structures compared to the cooler channels, interpreted as the typical length of magnetic loops at different coronal heights. Regions of low velocities and high time variability are regions where the dominant motion component is along the line of sight, confirmed by the presence of largely vertical magnetic field in a potential model. The mean magnitude of the velocities are a few tens of km/s, with different distributions in different channels. Time series of velocities show large variations between 0 and 100km/s or higher, and periodicities of between 3 and 11 minutes. All regions of the low corona thus experience a continuous stream of propagating disturbances at the limit of both spatial resolution and signal level. The method provides a powerful new diagnostic tool for tracing the coronal magnetic field, and to probe coronal dynamics at sub-pixel scales, with important implications for models of heating and of the magnetic field.