scholarly journals What can large-scale magnetohydrodynamic numerical experiments tell us about coronal heating?

Author(s):  
H. Peter

The upper atmosphere of the Sun is governed by the complex structure of the magnetic field. This controls the heating of the coronal plasma to over a million kelvin. Numerical experiments in the form of three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations are used to investigate the intimate interaction between magnetic field and plasma. These models allow one to synthesize the coronal emission just as it would be observed by real solar instrumentation. Large-scale models encompassing a whole active region form evolving coronal loops with properties similar to those seen in extreme ultraviolet light from the Sun, and reproduce a number of average observed quantities. This suggests that the spatial and temporal distributions of the heating as well as the energy distribution of individual heat deposition events in the model are a good representation of the real Sun. This provides evidence that the braiding of fieldlines through magneto-convective motions in the photosphere is a good concept to heat the upper atmosphere of the Sun.

2001 ◽  
Vol 203 ◽  
pp. 219-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. O. Weiss ◽  
M. R. E. Proctor

Numerical experiments on three-dimensional magnetoconvection in a stratified compressible layer reveal a range of different patterns, depending on the strength of the imposed magnetic field. As the field is decreased there is a transition from small-scale plumes, in the magnetically dominated regime, to large-scale vigorous plumes when the field is dominated by the motion. In the intermediate regime magnetic flux separates from the motion, so that there are almost field-free regions, with clusters of vigorous plumes, surrounded by regions where the Lorentz force is strong enough to control the dynamics. There is a range of field strengths where either small-scale plumes or flux-separated solutions can persist, depending on initial conditions for the computation. These results can be related to magnetic features at the surface of the Sun.


1990 ◽  
Vol 138 ◽  
pp. 281-295
Author(s):  
V. I. Makarov ◽  
K. R. Sivaraman

The main features concerning the evolution of the large scale photospheric magnetic fields derived from synoptic maps as well as from H-alpha synoptic charts are reviewed. The significance of a variety of observations that indicate the presence of a high latitude component as a counterpart to the sunspot phenomenon at lower latitudes is reviewed. It is argued that these two components describe the global magnetic field on the sun. It is demonstrated that this scenario is able to link many phenomena observed on the sun (coronal emission, ephemeral active regions, geomagnetic activity, torsional oscillations, polar faculae and global modes in the magnetic field pattern) with the global magnetic activity.


2019 ◽  
Vol 623 ◽  
pp. A176 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. P. Chitta ◽  
A. R. C. Sukarmadji ◽  
L. Rouppe van der Voort ◽  
H. Peter

Context. Densely packed coronal loops are rooted in photospheric plages in the vicinity of active regions on the Sun. The photospheric magnetic features underlying these plage areas are patches of mostly unidirectional magnetic field extending several arcsec on the solar surface. Aims. We aim to explore the transient nature of the magnetic field, its mixed-polarity characteristics, and the associated energetics in the active region plage using high spatial resolution observations and numerical simulations. Methods. We used photospheric Fe I 6173 Å spectropolarimetric observations of a decaying active region obtained from the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope (SST). These data were inverted to retrieve the photospheric magnetic field underlying the plage as identified in the extreme-ultraviolet emission maps obtained from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). To obtain better insight into the evolution of extended unidirectional magnetic field patches on the Sun, we performed 3D radiation magnetohydrodynamic simulations of magnetoconvection using the MURaM code. Results. The observations show transient magnetic flux emergence and cancellation events within the extended predominantly unipolar patch on timescales of a few 100 s and on spatial scales comparable to granules. These transient events occur at the footpoints of active region plage loops. In one case the coronal response at the footpoints of these loops is clearly associated with the underlying transient. The numerical simulations also reveal similar magnetic flux emergence and cancellation events that extend to even smaller spatial and temporal scales. Individual simulated transient events transfer an energy flux in excess of 1 MW m−2 through the photosphere. Conclusions. We suggest that the magnetic transients could play an important role in the energetics of active region plage. Both in observations and simulations, the opposite-polarity magnetic field brought up by transient flux emergence cancels with the surrounding plage field. Magnetic reconnection associated with such transient events likely conduits magnetic energy to power the overlying chromosphere and coronal loops.


2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (10) ◽  
pp. 1844006
Author(s):  
A. Dorodnitsyn ◽  
T. Kallman

Large scale magnetic field can be easily dragged from galactic scales toward AGN along with accreting gas. There, it can contribute to both the formation of AGN “torus” and help to remove angular momentum from the gas which fuels AGN accretion disk. However the dynamics of such gas is also strongly influenced by the radiative feedback from the inner accretion disk. Here we present results from the three-dimensional simulations of pc-scale accretion which is exposed to intense X-ray heating.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (S328) ◽  
pp. 237-239
Author(s):  
A. A. Vidotto

AbstractSynoptic maps of the vector magnetic field have routinely been made available from stellar observations and recently have started to be obtained for the solar photospheric field. Although solar magnetic maps show a multitude of details, stellar maps are limited to imaging large-scale fields only. In spite of their lower resolution, magnetic field imaging of solar-type stars allow us to put the Sun in a much more general context. However, direct comparison between stellar and solar magnetic maps are hampered by their dramatic differences in resolution. Here, I present the results of a method to filter out the small-scale component of vector fields, in such a way that comparison between solar and stellar (large-scale) magnetic field vector maps can be directly made. This approach extends the technique widely used to decompose the radial component of the solar magnetic field to the azimuthal and meridional components as well, and is entirely consistent with the description adopted in several stellar studies. This method can also be used to confront synoptic maps synthesised in numerical simulations of dynamo and magnetic flux transport studies to those derived from stellar observations.


Author(s):  
Joanna D. Haigh ◽  
Peter Cargill

This chapter discusses how there are four general factors that contribute to the Sun's potential role in variations in the Earth's climate. First, the fusion processes in the solar core determine the solar luminosity and hence the base level of radiation impinging on the Earth. Second, the presence of the solar magnetic field leads to radiation at ultraviolet (UV), extreme ultraviolet (EUV), and X-ray wavelengths which can affect certain layers of the atmosphere. Third, the variability of the magnetic field over a 22-year cycle leads to significant changes in the radiative output at some wavelengths. Finally, the interplanetary manifestation of the outer solar atmosphere (the solar wind) interacts with the terrestrial magnetic field, leading to effects commonly called space weather.


1998 ◽  
Vol 167 ◽  
pp. 493-496
Author(s):  
Dmitri I. Ponyavin

AbstractA technique is used to restore the magnetic field of the Sun viewed as star from the filament distribution seen on Hα photographs. For this purpose synoptic charts of the large-scale magnetic field reconstructed by the McIntosh method have been compared with the Sun-asstar solar magnetic field observed at Stanford. We have established a close association between the Sun-as-star magnetic field and the mean magnetic field inferred from synoptic magnetic field maps. A filtering technique was applied to find correlations between the Sun-as-star and large-scale magnetic field distributions during the course of a solar cycle. The correlations found were then used to restore the Sun-as-star magnetic field and its evolution in the late 1950s and 1960s, when such measurements of the field were not being made. A stackplot display of the inferred data reveals large-scale magnetic field organization and evolution. Patterns of the Sun-as-star magnetic field during solar cycle 19 were obtained. The proposed technique can be useful for studying the solar magnetic field structure and evolution during times with no direct observations.


1971 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 609-615 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Daigne ◽  
M. F. Lantos-Jarry ◽  
M. Pick

It is possible to deduce information concerning large scale coronal magnetic field patterns from the knowledge of the location of radioburst sources.As the method concerns active centers responsible for corpuscular emission, the knowledge of these structures may have important implications in the understanding of corpuscular propagation in the corona and in the interplanetary medium.


1976 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. 113-118
Author(s):  
P. Ambrož

The measurement of the magnitude of the limb effect was homogenized in time and a recurrent period of maxima of 27.8 days was found. A relation was found between the maximum values of the limb effect of the redshift, the boundaries of polarities of the interplanetary magnetic field, the characteristic large-scale distribution of the background magnetic fields and the complex of solar activity.


2001 ◽  
Vol 203 ◽  
pp. 276-279
Author(s):  
J. Ireland ◽  
A. Fludra

The Coronal Diagnostic Spectrometer (CDS) on SOHO carries out daily synoptic observations of the Sun in four EUV (extreme ultraviolet) spectra: He I 584 Å, O V 630 Å, Mg IX 368 Å and Fe XVI 360 Å, over a 4 arcmin-wide strip along the solar central meridian. Using 53 active regions observed in this data set along with co-temporally observed SOHO-MDI (Michelson Doppler Imager) magnetograms we study the correlation of the chromospheric, transition region and coronal emission with the photospheric magnetic field for meridional active regions, probing the relation between the radiative output and magnetic observables. We also establish empirical, quantitative relations among intensities of different lines, and between intensities and the magnetic field flux.


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