Excitation and damping of broadband kink waves in the solar corona

Context. Observations such as those by the CoronalMulti-Channel Polarimeter (CoMP) have revealed that broadband kink oscillations are ubiquitous in the solar corona. Aims. We consider footpoint-driven kink waves propagating in a low beta coronal plasma with a cylindrical density structure. We investigate the excitation and damping of propagating kink waves by a broadband driver, including the effects of different spatial profiles for the driver. Methods. We employ a general spatial damping profile in which the initial stage of the damping envelope is approximated by a Gaussian profile and the asymptotic state by an exponential one. We develop a method of accounting for the presence of these different damping regimes and test it using data from numerical simulations. Results. Strongly damped oscillations in low density coronal loops are more accurately described by a Gaussian spatial damping profile than an exponential profile. The consequences for coronal seismology are investigated and applied to observational data for the ubiquitous broadband waves observed by CoMP. Current data cannot distinguish between the exponential and Gaussian profiles because of the levels of noise. We demonstrate the importance of the spatial profile of the driver on the resulting damping profile. Furthermore, we show that a small-scale turbulent driver is inefficient at exciting propagating kink waves.