Detection of Waves in the Solar Corona: Kink or Alfvén?

Abstract

Recently, the omnipresence of waves has been discovered in the corona using the CoMP instrument. We demonstrate that the observational findings can be explained in terms of guided kink magnetoacoustic modes. The interpretation of the observations in terms of Alfvén waves is shown to be inconsistent with MHD wave theory. The implications of the interpretation in terms of kink waves are discussed. Subject headings: MHD — Sun: corona — Sun: oscillations 1.