Direct solution of laplace's equation for coronal magnetic fields using line-of-sight boundary conditions

Solar Physics ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Riesebieter ◽  
F. M. Neubauer
Author(s):  
Yoram Rubin

Many applications require primary information such as average fluxes as a prelude to more complex calculations. In water balance calculations one may be interested only in the average fluxes. For both cases the concept of effective conductivity is useful. The effective hydraulic conductivity is defined by where the angled brackets denote the expected value operator. The local flux fluctuation is defined by the difference qi(x) — (qi(x)). Its statistical properties as well as those of the velocity will be investigated in chapter 6. To qualify as an effective property in the strict physical sense, Kef must be a function of the aquifer’s material properties and not be influenced by flow conditions such as the head gradient and boundary conditions (Landauer, 1978). Our goal in this chapter is to explore the concept of the effective conductivity Kef and to relate it to the medium’s properties under as general conditions as possible. Additionally, we shall explore the conditions where this concept is irrelevant and applicable, the important issue being that Kef is defined in an ensemble sense, but for applications we need spatial averages. Several methods for deriving Kef will be described below. The general approach for defining Kef includes the following steps. First, H is defined as an SRF and is expressed with the aid of the flow equation in terms of the hydro-geological SRFs (conductivity, mostly) and the boundary conditions. The H SRF is then substituted in Darcy’s law and an expression in the form equivalent to (5.1) is sought. If and only if the coefficient in front of the mean head gradient is not a function of the flow conditions will it qualify as Kef. The derivation of the effective conductivity employs the flow equation. In steady-state incompressible flow, for example, Laplace’s equation is employed. Solutions derived under Laplace’s equation are applicable, under appropriate conditions, for other physical phenomena governed by the same mathematical model. For example, the electrical field in steady state is also described by Laplace’s equation.


1967 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 452-456
Author(s):  
R. O’Regan

Laplace’s equation occurs frequently in mathematical physics for problems relating to fluid flow, heat transfer, and so on. For some simple cases, the boundary-value problem can be solved; but more often, the differential equation proves intractable, and numerical analysis or experimental methods are used. The electrooptic analog is an experimental method based upon the fact that an organic dye solution becomes birefringent in an electric field. This effect enables one to determine voltage gradient throughout a two-dimensional field. The boundary conditions most readily applied are prescribed constant values of the electric potential φ on conducting segments of a boundary and ∂φ/∂n = 0 on insulated segments of a boundary. With the known conditions on the boundary and the potential gradient found from experiment, the problem is solved. This analog can be used for all physical problems for which the boundary conditions are applicable, and which satisfy Laplace’s equation.


2003 ◽  
Vol 10 (4/5) ◽  
pp. 313-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Wiegelmann ◽  
T. Neukirch

Abstract. Knowledge of the structure of the coronal magnetic field is important for our understanding of many solar activity phenomena, e.g. flares and CMEs. However, the direct measurement of coronal magnetic fields is not possible with present methods, and therefore the coronal field has to be extrapolated from photospheric measurements. Due to the low plasma beta the coronal magnetic field can usually be assumed to be approximately force free, with electric currents flowing along the magnetic field lines. There are both observational and theoretical reasons which suggest that at least prior to an eruption the coronal magnetic field is in a nonlinear force free state. Unfortunately the computation of nonlinear force free fields is way more difficult than potential or linear force free fields and analytic solutions are not generally available. We discuss several methods which have been proposed to compute nonlinear force free fields and focus particularly on an optimization method which has been suggested recently. We compare the numerical performance of a newly developed numerical code based on the optimization method with the performance of another code based on an MHD relaxation method if both codes are applied to the reconstruction of a semi-analytic nonlinear force-free solution. The optimization method has also been tested for cases where we add random noise to the perfect boundary conditions of the analytic solution, in this way mimicking the more realistic case where the boundary conditions are given by vector magnetogram data. We find that the convergence properties of the optimization method are affected by adding noise to the boundary data and we discuss possibilities to overcome this difficulty.


2010 ◽  
Vol 2010 (1) ◽  
pp. 468594 ◽  
Author(s):  
AA Dosiyev ◽  
S Cival Buranay ◽  
D Subasi

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