MULTI-SHELL MAGNETIC TWISTERS AS A NEW MECHANISM FOR CORONAL HEATING AND SOLAR WIND ACCELERATION

We perform numerical simulations of impulsively generated Alfvén waves in an isolated photospheric flux tube and explore the propagation of these waves along such magnetic structure that extends from the photosphere, where these waves are triggered, to the solar corona, and we analyze resulting magnetic shells. Our model of the solar atmosphere is constructed by adopting the temperature distribution based on the semi-empirical model and specifying the curved magnetic field lines that constitute the magnetic flux tube that is rooted in the solar photosphere. The evolution of the solar atmosphere is described by 3D, ideal MHD equations that are numerically solved by the FLASH code. Our numerical simulations reveal, based on the physical properties of the multi-shell magnetic twisters and the amount of energy and momentum associated with them, that these multi-shell magnetic twisters may be responsible for the observed heating of the lower solar corona and for the formation of solar wind. Moreover, it is likely that the existence of these twisters can be verified by high-resolution observations.

[1]  A. Srivastava,et al.  Torsional Alfvén waves in solar magnetic flux tubes of axial symmetry , 2015, 1501.00252.

[2]  B. Pontieu,et al.  Probing the solar interface region , 2014, Science.

[3]  L. Golub,et al.  Prevalence of small-scale jets from the networks of the solar transition region and chromosphere , 2014, Science.

[4]  Yasuyuki T. Tanaka,et al.  Variable optical polarization during high state in γ-ray loud, narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy 1H 0323+342 , 2014, 1405.3731.

[5]  S. Shelyag,et al.  ALFVÉN WAVES IN SIMULATIONS OF SOLAR PHOTOSPHERIC VORTICES , 2013, 1309.2019.

[6]  S. Wedemeyer,et al.  Magnetic tornadoes and chromospheric swirls – Definition and classification , 2013, 1303.0179.

[7]  M. Abbas,et al.  CHARGING OF DUST GRAINS IN ASTROPHYSICAL ENVIRONMENTS BY SECONDARY ELECTRON EMISSIONS , 2012 .

[8]  M. Temmer,et al.  SOLAR MAGNETIZED “TORNADOES:” RELATION TO FILAMENTS , 2012, 1208.0138.

[9]  R. Erdélyi,et al.  Magnetic tornadoes as energy channels into the solar corona , 2012, Nature.

[10]  K. Kotake,et al.  FULLY GENERAL RELATIVISTIC SIMULATIONS OF CORE-COLLAPSE SUPERNOVAE WITH AN APPROXIMATE NEUTRINO TRANSPORT , 2012, 1202.2487.

[11]  M. Schussler,et al.  Vortices, shocks, and heating in the solar photosphere: effect of a magnetic field , 2012, 1201.5981.

[12]  V. Fedun,et al.  THREE-DIMENSIONAL SIMULATIONS OF MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMIC WAVES IN MAGNETIZED SOLAR ATMOSPHERE , 2011, 1109.6471.

[13]  Yang Liu,et al.  UBIQUITOUS ROTATING NETWORK MAGNETIC FIELDS AND EXTREME-ULTRAVIOLET CYCLONES IN THE QUIET SUN , 2011, 1109.5003.

[14]  B. Pontieu,et al.  Alfvénic waves with sufficient energy to power the quiet solar corona and fast solar wind , 2011, Nature.

[15]  S. Cranmer,et al.  HEATING OF THE SOLAR CHROMOSPHERE AND CORONA BY ALFVÉN WAVE TURBULENCE , 2011, 1105.0402.

[16]  F. Keenan,et al.  Vorticity in the solar photosphere , 2010, 1010.5604.

[17]  J. C. del Toro Iniesta,et al.  DETECTION OF VORTEX TUBES IN SOLAR GRANULATION FROM OBSERVATIONS WITH Sunrise , 2010, 1009.4723.

[18]  Z. Musielak,et al.  Linear Alfvén waves in the solar atmosphere , 2010 .

[19]  A. Solov'ev.  The structure of solar filaments. Prominences in the corona free from external magnetic field , 2010 .

[20]  S. Wedemeyer-Bohm,et al.  Small-scale swirl events in the quiet Sun chromosphere , 2009, 0910.2226.

[21]  Dongwook Lee,et al.  An unsplit staggered mesh scheme for multidimensional magnetohydrodynamics , 2009, J. Comput. Phys..

[22]  E. Avrett,et al.  Models of the Solar Chromosphere and Transition Region from SUMER and HRTS Observations: Formation of the Extreme-Ultraviolet Spectrum of Hydrogen, Carbon, and Oxygen , 2008 .

[23]  Yukio Katsukawa,et al.  Chromospheric Anemone Jets as Evidence of Ubiquitous Reconnection , 2007, Science.

[24]  R. Erdélyi,et al.  Solar chromospheric spicules from the leakage of photospheric oscillations and flows , 2004, Nature.

[25]  B. Fryxell,et al.  FLASH: An Adaptive Mesh Hydrodynamics Code for Modeling Astrophysical Thermonuclear Flashes , 2000 .

[26]  G. Tóth.  The ∇·B=0 Constraint in Shock-Capturing Magnetohydrodynamics Codes , 2000 .

[27]  T. Arber,et al.  Nature of the heating mechanism for the diffuse solar corona , 1998, Nature.