Automated analysis of oscillations in coronal bright points

Context. Coronal bright points (BPs) are numerous, bright, small-scale dynamical features found in the solar corona. Bright points have been observed to exhibit intensity oscillations across a wide range of periodicities and are likely an important signature of plasma heating and/or transport mechanisms. Aims. We present a novel and efficient wavelet-based method that automatically detects and tracks the intensity evolution of BPs using images from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) in the 193 Å bandpass. Through the study of a large, statistically significant set of BPs, we attempt to place constraints on the underlying physical mechanisms. Methods. We used a continuous wavelet transform (CWT) in 2D to detect the BPs within images. One-dimensional CWTs were used to analyse the individual BP time series to detect significant periodicities. Results. We find significant periodicity at 4, 8-10, 17, 28, and 65 min. Bright point lifetimes are shown to follow a power law with exponent -1.13 ± 0.07. The relationship between the BP lifetime and maximum diameter similarly follows a power law with exponent 0.129 ± 0.011. Conclusions. Our wavelet-based method successfully detects and extracts BPs and analyses their intensity oscillations. Future work will expand upon these methods, using larger datasets and simultaneous multi-instrument observations.