Characteristics of Solar Flare Doppler Shift Oscillations Observed with the Bragg Crystal Spectrometer on Yohkoh

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a survey of Doppler shift oscillations measured during solar flares in emission lines of S XV and Ca XIX with the Bragg Crystal Spectrometer (BCS) on Yohkoh. Data from 20 flares that show oscillatory behavior in the measured Doppler shifts have been fitted to determine the properties of the oscillations. Results from both BCS channels show average oscillation periods of 5.5 +/- 2.7 minutes, decay times of 5.0 +/-2.5 minutes, amplitudes of 17.1 +/- 17.0 km/s, and inferred displacements of 1070 +/- 1710 km, where the listed errors are the standard deviations of the sample means. For some of the flares, intensity fluctuations are also observed. These lag the Doppler shift oscillations by 1/4 period, strongly suggesting that the oscillations are standing slow mode waves. The relationship between the oscillation period and the decay time is consistent with conductive damping of the oscillations.