The formation of solar quiescent prominences by condensation

We model the formation of solar quiescent prominences by solving numerically the non-linear, time-dependent, magnetohydrodynamic equations governing the condensation of the corona. A two-dimensional geometry is used. Gravitational and magnetic fields are included, but thermal conduction is neglected. The coronal fluid is assumed to cool by radiation and to be heated by the dissipation of mechanical energy carried by shock waves. A small, isobaric perturbation of the initial thermal and mechanical equilibrium is introduced and the fluid is allowed to relax. Because the corona with the given energy sources is thermally unstable, cooling and condensation result.When magnetic and gravitational fields are absent, condensation occurs isotropically with a strongly time-dependent growth rate, and achieves a density 18 times the initial density in 3.5 × 10⁴ s. The rapidity of condensation is limited by hydrodynamical considerations, in contrast to the treatment of Raju (1968). When both magnetic and gravitational fields are included, the rate of condensation is inhibited and denser material falls.We conclude that: (1) condensation of coronal material due to thermal instability is possible if thermal conduction is inhibited; (2) hydrodynamical processes determine, in large part, the rate of condensation; (3) condensation can occur on a time scale compatible with the observed times of formation of quiescent prominences.The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.     

Magnetohydrodynamic behaviour of a finite amplitude disturbance in the solar magnetic field

In this paper, dynamic processes in the solar atmosphere are studied numerically from a complete set of MHD equations. Dynamic evolution of the non-linear magnetic field is produced by the finite amplitude of the azimuthai magnetic field at the base of the flux tube of the solar atmosphere. It is assumed that the initial configuration of the magnetic field is a force-free and potential field, the magnetic field is disturbed at the base, the plasma is driven and a part of the magnetic energy is transformed into the kinetic energy of the plasma.The compressed flow of the plasma has the features of fast MHD waves. The computation results give quantitatively the non-linear evolution of strong magnetic fields. These results could be used in an explanation of coronal transients, surge, spray and eruptive prominence events in the solar atmosphere, as well as in a modelling of plasma behaviour in high-β structure experiments in the laboratory.     

太阳大气中动力学阿尔文波的产生与加热研究进展

动力学阿尔文波是垂直波长接近离子回旋半径或者电子惯性长度的色散阿尔文波.由于波的尺度接近粒子的动力学尺度,动力学阿尔文波在太阳和空间等离子体加热、加速等能化现象中起重要作用.因此,动力学阿尔文波通常被认为是日冕加热的候选者.本研究工作深入、系统地调研了太阳大气中动力学阿尔文波的激发和耗散机制.基于日冕等离子体环境,介绍了几种常见的动力学阿尔文波激发机制:温度各向异性不稳定性、场向电流不稳定性、电子束流不稳定性、密度非均匀不稳定性以及共振模式转换.还介绍了太阳大气中动力学阿尔文波的耗散机制,并讨论了这些耗散机制对黑子加热、冕环加热以及冕羽加热的影响.不仅为认识太阳大气中动力学阿尔文波的驱动机制、动力学演化特征以及波粒相互作用提供合理的理论依据,而且有助于揭示日冕等离子体中能量储存和释放、粒子加热等能化现象的微观物理机制.     

Transition region and coronal plasmas: instrumentation and spectral analysis

The plasma conditions in the solar atmosphere and, in particular, in coronal holes are summarized, before space-borne instrumentation for observing these regions in vacuum-ultraviolet light is briefly introduced with the Solar Ultraviolet Measurements of Emitted Radiation (SUMER) spectrometer on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) as example. Spectroscopic measurements of small plasma jets are then analyzed in detail. Magnetic reconnection is thought to be responsible for heating the corona of the Sun as well as accelerating the solar wind by converting magnetic energy into thermal and kinetic energies. The continuous outflow of the fast solar wind from coronal holes on ‘open’ field lines, which reach out into interplanetary space, then requires many reconnection events of very small scale sizes – most of them probably below the resolution capabilities of present-day instruments. Our observations of such an event have been obtained with the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) providing both high-resolution imaging and spectral information for structural and dynamical studies. We find whirling or rotating motions as well as jets with acceleration along their propagation paths in close spatial and temporal vicinity to the coronal jet. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

内日冕的绿线强度分布研究

日冕是太阳大气活动的关键区域, 是日地空间天气的源头. 受观测限制, 对日冕低层大气等离子体结构和磁场状态的研究非常欠缺, 国际上对于可见光波段日冕低层大气的亮度分层研究很少. 利用丽江日冕仪YOGIS (Yunnan Green-line Imaging System)的日冕绿线($\rm Fe_{\Rmnum{14     

Damping of Longitudinal Magneto–Acoustic Oscillations in Slowly Varying Coronal Plasma

We investigate the propagation of MHD waves in a magnetised plasma in a weakly stratified atmosphere, representative of hot coronal loops. In most earlier studies, a time-independent equilibrium was considered. Here we abandon this restriction and allow the equilibrium to develop as a function of time. In particular, the background plasma is assumed to be cooling due to thermal conduction. The cooling is assumed to occur on a time scale greater than the characteristic travel times of the perturbations. We investigate the influence of cooling of the background plasma on the properties of magneto–acoustic waves. The MHD equations are reduced to a 1D system modelling magneto–acoustic modes propagating along a dynamically cooling coronal loop. A time-dependent dispersion relation that describes the propagation of the magneto–acoustic waves is derived using the WKB theory. An analytic solution for the time-dependent amplitude of waves is obtained, and the method of characteristics is used to find an approximate analytical solution. Numerical calculations of the analytically derived solutions are obtained to give further insight into the behaviour of the MHD waves in a system with a variable, time-dependent background. The results show that there is a strong damping of MHD waves and the damping also appears to be independent of the position along the loop. Studies of MHD wave behaviour in a time-dependent backgrounds seem to be a fundamental and very important next step in the development of MHD wave theory that is applicable to a wide range of situations in solar physics.     

Suprathermal oxygen atoms in the Martian upper atmosphere: Contribution of the proton and hydrogen atom precipitation

This is a study of the kinetics and transport of hot oxygen atoms in the transition region (from the thermosphere to the exosphere) of the Martian upper atmosphere. It is assumed that the source of the hot oxygen atoms is the transfer of momentum and energy in elastic collisions between thermal atmospheric oxygen atoms and the high-energy protons and hydrogen atoms precipitating onto the Martian upper atmosphere from the solar-wind plasma. The distribution functions of suprathermal oxygen atoms by the kinetic energy are calculated. It is shown that the exosphere is populated by a large number of suprathermal oxygen atoms with kinetic energies up to the escape energy 2 eV; i.e., a hot oxygen corona is formed around Mars. The transfer of energy from the precipitating solar-wind plasma protons and hydrogen atoms to the thermal oxygen atoms leads to the formation of an additional nonthermal escape flux of atomic oxygen from the Martian atmosphere. The precipitation-induced escape flux of hot oxygen atoms may become dominant under the conditions of extreme solar events, such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections, as shown by recent observations onboard NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft (Jakosky et al., 2015).     

Validity of the isobaric assumption to the solar corona

Many coronal heating mechanisms have been suggested to balance the losses from this tenuous medium by radiation, conduction, and plasma mass flows. A previous paper (Walsh, Bell, and Hood, 1995) considered a time-dependent heating supply where the plasma evolved isobarically along the loop length. The validity of this assumption is investigated by including the inertial terms in the fluid equations making it necessary to track the sound waves propagating in a coronal loop structure due to changes in the heating rate with time. It is found that the temperature changes along the loop are mainly governed by the variations in the heating so that the thermal evolution can be approximated to a high degree by the simple isobaric case. A typical isobaric evolution of the plasma properties is reproduced when the acoustic time scale is short enough. However, the cooling of a hot temperature equilibrium to a cool one creates supersonic flows which are not allowed for in this model.     

The solar corona as a minimum energy system?

This paper is an exploration of the possibility that the large-scale equilibrium of plasma and magnetic fields in the solar corona is a minimum energy state. Support for this conjecture is sought by considering the simplest form of that equilibrium in a dipole solar field, as suggested by the observed structure of the corona at times of minimum solar activity. Approximate, axisymmetric solutions to the MHD equations are constructed to include both a magnetically closed, hydrostatic region and a magnetically open region where plasma flows along field lines in the form of a transonic, thermally-driven wind. Sequences of such solutions are obtained for various degrees of magnetic field opening, and the total energy of each solution is computed, including contributions from both the plasma and magnetic field. It is shown that along a sequence of increasingly closed coronal magnetic field, the total energy curve is a non-monotonic function of the parameter measuring the degree of magnetic field opening, with a minimum occurring at moderate field opening.For reasonable choices of model parameters (coronal temperature, base density, base magnetic field strength, etc.), the morphology of the minimum energy solution resembles the observed quiet, solar minimum corona. The exact location energy minimum along a given sequence depends rather sensitively on some of the adopted parameter values. It is nevertheless argued that the existence of an energy minimum along the sequences of solutions should remain a robust property of more realistic coronal wind models that incorporate the basic characteristics of the equilibrium corona- the presence of both open and closed magnetic regions.The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.     

Effects of Stratification and Flows on P 1/P 2 Ratios and Anti-node Shifts Within Closed Loop Structures

The solar atmosphere is a dynamic environment, constantly evolving to form a wide range of magnetically dominated structures (coronal loops, spicules, prominences, etc.) which cover a significant percentage of the surface at any one time. Oscillations and waves in many of these structures are now widely observed and have led to the new analytic technique of solar magneto-seismology, where inferences of the background conditions of the plasma can be deduced by studying magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) waves. Here, we generalise a novel magneto-seismological method designed to infer the density distribution of a bounded plasma structure from the relationship of its fundamental and subsequent harmonics. Observations of the solar atmosphere have emphatically shown that stratification, leading to complex density profiles within plasma structures, is common thereby rendering this work instantly accessible to solar physics. We show, in a dynamic waveguide, how the period ratio differs from the idealised harmonic ratios prevalent in homogeneous structures. These ratios show strong agreement with recent observational work. Next, anti-node shifts are also analysed. Using typical scaling parameters for bulk flows within atmospheric waveguides, e.g., coronal loops, it is found that significant anti-node shifts can be predicted, even to the order of 10 Mm. It would be highly encouraged to design specific observations to confirm the predicted anti-node shifts and apply the developed theory of solar magneto-seismology to gain more accurate waveguide diagnostics of the solar atmosphere.     

The outflow of solar wind from the active regions

The numerical integration of hydrodynamics equations with an allowance for thermal conductivity was made using the temperature distribution in the corona situated above the active regions obtained from the damping time of solar radio bursts of Types III and V. It is essential that for the integration path serve the magnetic field lines along which exciters of bursts are moving and accelerated coronal plasma can move freely too.The main result is the discovery of such regions, where the high temperature gradient precludes the possibility of a continuous flow of coronal plasma. These regions, where intense heating and rapid acceleration of the coronal plasma take place, were situated at distances of about 2 R from the Sun's center. They probably possess the character of weak detonation waves. The waves of cooling can also be present in these regions of discontinuity of the flow. The observations of bursts of Type V at distances up to 6.3 R gives some evidence that discontinuities of flow of the solar wind of the same nature can possibly arise also in the more remote parts of the solar corona.It is important that the similar jumps of velocity and other parameters of coronal plasma were also discovered earlier in a quite independent way as a result of the interpretation of the solar radio echo data. It can be anticipated that the nonthermal heating of coronal plasma, which was postulated to remove discrepancies between the existing models and observations of solar wind, was localized mainly in these regions thus playing an important role in the formation of the fundamental properties of the interplanetary medium.The obtained results are of preliminary character since there are no reliable and homogeneous data on bursts of Types III and V especially at 20-10 MHz, where the work is difficult due to the man-made interference and also at still lower frequencies, observed by the cosmic probes. We can hope that the filling of this gap allows us to construct a realistic model of outflow of coronal plasma from active regions, which can be successfully compared with the results of direct measurement of parameters of solar wind.     

Features of the Gasdynamical Response of the Outer Solar Atmosphere to an Impulsive Heating

New results of the numerical modeling of the response of the outer atmosphere of the Sun to an impulsive heating are presented. Features of the general process are considered both for powerful and weak solar flares. For the most powerful flares it is necessary to take into account the effect of a saturation of the heat flow. Though for the most powerful solar flares the saturation of a thermal flow is not such large, the influence of this effect is important for cases of powerful flares on red dwarf stars, strongly limiting the input of the thermal energy downwards. The response of the atmosphere, which consists of the chromosphere, the transition region and the corona, to weak heating is characterized by creation no one as usually but two ascending coronal flows. The occurrence of the additional flow at coronal heights is caused by the inhomogeneous initial heating of the outer atmosphere. Some types of soft X-ray and UV-jets can be associated with such additional flow. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

High-energy observations of solar flares

Extensive observations of solar flares made in high energy bands during the maximum of the present solar cycle are discussed with a special reference to the results from HINOTORI, and with attention to the relevant flare models. The hard X-ray (HXR) images from HINOTORI showed mostly coronal emission at 20–25 keV suggesting that the HXR is emitted from multiple coronal loops, consistent with the non-thermal electron beam model in a high density corona. The thermal HXR model seems to be inconsistent with some observations. Three types of flares which have been classified from the Hinotori results are described, along with newly discovered hot thermal component of 30–40 million K which contributes thermal HXR emission. A summary is given for the characteristics of the energy release in an impulsive burst; and an empirical model is described, which explains simultaneous energy releases in multiple loops and successive movements of the release site as suggested from the HXR morphology. The discovery of large blue-shifted hot plasma from the soft X-ray line spectrum leads to some quantitative arguments for the evaporating flare model. An electron-heated flare atmosphere appears to explain various observations consistently.Invited paper presented at the IAU Third Asian-Pacific Regional Meeting, held in Kyoto, Japan, between 30 September–6 October, 1984.     

Energy released by the interaction of coronal magnetic fields

Comparisons between coronal spectroheliograms and photospheric magnetograms are presented to support the idea that as coronal magnetic fields interact, a process of field line reconnection usually takes place as a natural way of preventing magnetic stresses from building up in the lower corona. This suggests that the energy which would have been stored in stressed fields is continuously released as kinetic energy of material being driven aside to make way for the reconnecting fields. However, this kinetic energy is negligible compared to the thermal energy of the coronal plasma. Therefore, it appears that these slow adjustments of coronal magnetic fields cannot account for even the normal heating of the corona, much less the energetic events associated with solar flares.Visiting Scientist, Kitt Peak National Observatory, Tucson Arizona.Operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under contract with the National Science Foundation.     

Modeling coronal magnetic field using spherical geometry: cases with several active regions

The magnetic fields in the solar atmosphere structure the plasma, store free magnetic energy and produce a wide variety of active solar phenomena, like flare and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). The distribution and strength of magnetic fields are routinely measured in the solar surface (photosphere). Therefore, there is considerable interest in accurately modeling the 3D structure of the coronal magnetic field using photospheric vector magnetograms. Knowledge of the 3D structure of magnetic field lines also help us to interpret other coronal observations, e.g., EUV images of the radiating coronal plasma. Nonlinear force-free field (NLFFF) models are thought to be viable tools for those task. Usually those models use Cartesian geometry. However, the spherical nature of the solar surface cannot be neglected when the field of view is large. In this work, we model the coronal magnetic field above multiple active regions using NLFFF extrapolation code using vector magnetograph data from the Synoptic Optical Long-term Investigations of the Sun survey (SOLIS)/Vector Spectromagnetograph (VSM) as a boundary conditions. We compare projections of the resulting magnetic field lines solutions with their respective coronal EUV-images from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (SDO/AIA) observed on October 15, 2011 and November 13, 2012. This study has found that the NLFFF model in spherical geometry reconstructs the magnetic configurations for several active regions which agrees to some extent with observations. During October 15, 2011 observation, there are substantial number of trans-equatorial loops carrying electric current.     

Coronal streamers

The geometrical and dynamical structure of a corona consisting of streamer and interstreamer regions is examined. The present paper is an extension of previous works of this series in that energy transport processes are included in the theoretical framework of the model. Under specified conditions at some reference level above the coronal base, the structure at larger distances is determined by simultaneous integration of the continuity, momentum, and energy equations for each region subject to the condition for a lateral balance of magnetic and gas pressure at all levels. Outward thermal conduction and convection by the solar wind are assumed to be the processes contributing to the energy balance of each region, the magnetic field effectively thermally insulating one region from the other.Numerical results are presented for situations representative of the solar corona. Regions occupied by streamers are found to have higher densities than their surroundings at all distances from the sun. For a given density at the coronal base, the density at the orbit of earth is lower in both the streamer and interstreamer region than that predicted for radial flow. The density enhancement increases outward to a maximum value at a distance of several solar radii. In addition, beyond a distance of a few radii streamers are characterized by higher expansion velocities and lower temperatures than their immediate surroundings. Similar to the case of radial flow, supersonic solutions exist only for base densities below a certain value, which depends upon the specified base temperature and magnetic field distribution. The general features illustrated by these models are expected to persist in the advent of more sophisticated multi-region models.The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.     

Radial variation of differential rotation in the solar electron corona

Long-lived brightness structures in the solar electron corona persist over many solar rotation periods and permit an observational determination of coronal magnetic tracer rotation as a function of latitude and height in the solar atmosphere. For observations over 1964–1976 spanning solar cycle 20, we compare the latitude dependence of rotation at two heights in the corona. Comparison of rotation rates from East and West limbs and from independent computational procedures is used to estimate uncertainty. Time-averaged rotation rates based on three methods of analysis demonstrate that, on average, coronal differential rotation decreases with height from 1.125 to 1.5 R _S. The observed radial variation of differential rotation implies a scale height of approximately 0.7 R _S for coronal differential rotation.Model calculations for a simple MHD loop show that magnetic connections between high and low latitudes may produce the observed radial variations of magnetic tracer rotation. If the observed tracer rotation represents the rotation of open magnetic field lines as well as that of closed loops, the small scale height for differential rotation suggests that the rotation of solar magnetic fields at the base of the solar wind may be only weakly latitude dependent. If, instead, closed loops account completely for the radial gradients of rotation, outward extrapolation of electron coronal rotation may not describe magnetic field rotation at the solar wind source. Inward extrapolations of observed rotation rates suggest that magnetic field and plasma are coupled a few hundredths of a solar radius beneath the photosphere.     

Magnetosonic waves in structured atmospheres with steady flows

The magnetosonic modes of magnetic plasma structures in the solar atmosphere are considered taking into account steady flows of plasma in the internal and external media and using a slab geometry. The investigation brings nearer the theory of magnetosonic waveguides, in such structures as coronal loops and photospheric flux tubes, to realistic conditions of the solar atmosphere. The general dispersion relation for the magnetosonic modes of a magnetic slab in magnetic surroundings is derived, allowing for field-aligned steady flows in either region. It is shown that flows change both qualitatively and quantitatively the characteristics of magnetosonic modes. The flow may lead to the appearance of a new type of trapped mode, namelybackward waves. These waves are the usual slab modes propagating in the direction opposite to the internal flow, but advected with the flow. The disappearance of some modes due to the flow is also demonstrated.The results are applied to coronal and photospheric magnetic structures. In coronal loops, the appearance of backward slow body waves or the disappearance of slow body waves, depending upon the direction of propagation, is possible if the flow speed exceeds the internal sound speed ( 300 km s^–1). In photospheric tubes, the disappearance of fast surface and slow body waves may be caused by an external downdraught of about 3 km s^–1.     

Viscous Damping of Non-Adiabatic MHD Waves in an Unbounded Solar Coronal Plasma

The damping of MHD waves in solar coronal magnetic field is studied taking into account thermal conduction and compressive viscosity as dissipative mechanisms. We consider viscous homogeneous unbounded solar coronal plasma permeated by a uniform magnetic field. A general fifth-order dispersion relation for MHD waves has been derived and solved numerically for different solar coronal regimes. The dispersion relation results three wave modes: slow, fast, and thermal modes. Damping time and damping per periods for slow- and fast-mode waves determined from dispersion relation show that the slow-mode waves are heavily damped in comparison with fast-mode waves in prominences, prominence–corona transition regions (PCTR), and corona. In PCTRs and coronal active regions, wave instabilities appear for considered heating mechanisms. For same heating mechanisms in different prominences the behavior of damping time and damping per period changes significantly from small to large wavenumbers. In all PCTRs and corona, damping time always decreases linearly with increase in wavenumber indicate sharp damping of slow- and fast-mode waves.     

WHITE-LIGHT POLARIZATION AND LARGE-SCALE CORONAL STRUCTURES

The results of the white-light polarization measurements performed during three solar eclipses (1973, 1980, 1991) are presented. The eclipse images were processed and analysed by the same technique and method and, consequently, the distributions of the polarization and coronal intensity around the Sun were obtained in unified form for all three solar eclipses. The mutual comparisons of our results, and their comparison with the distributions found by other authors, allowed the real accuracy of the current measurements of the white-light corona polarization, which is not worse than ±5%, to be estimated. We have investigated the behaviour of the polarization in dependence on heliocentric distance in helmet streamers and coronal holes. Simultaneous interpretation of the data on polarization and intensity in white-light helmet streamers is only possible if a considerable concentration of coronal matter (plasma) towards the plane of the sky is assumed. The values obtained for the coronal hole regions can be understood within the framework of a spherically symmetrical model of the low density solar atmosphere. A tendency towards increasing polarization in coronal holes, connected with the decrease of the hole's size and with the transition from the minimum to the maximum of the solar cycle, was noticed. The problem of how the peculiarities of the large-scale coronal structures are related to the orientation of the global (dipole) solar magnetic field and to the degree of the goffer character of the coronal and interplanetary current sheet is discussed briefly.