磁能和磁复杂性向日冕的传输

本讨论了从太阳光球向日冕传输磁能和磁复杂性的过程。活动日冕，作为由电磁场和粒子组成的系统，其唯一的开场表面是太阳光球，光球层等离子体的运动和磁场的相互作用，是造成磁能和磁复杂性向日冕传输的主要根据；同时，光球上的耗散过程也对日冕磁能和磁复杂性的积累有不可忽视的贡献。     

太阳光球磁亮点的基本特征研究及其对日冕加热的贡献

在太阳光球表面出现的磁亮点是目前观测手段能够分辨的最小磁结构,也被认为是日冕中的磁绳在光球足点运动的可靠示踪者。磁亮点的尺度约为100～300 km,寿命从几分钟到几十分钟。磁亮点被观测到不仅具有漩涡运动现象,还有很强的振荡现象。磁亮点是在磁通量管的对流坍缩过程中形成的,这已被观测和数值模拟所验证;磁亮点的运动导致其所在的磁通量管产生振荡,或者与其他磁通量管发生扭绞。理论上认为,这些振荡会以波的形式向色球和日冕传送能量,而磁通量管之间的扭绞会在色球和日冕中发生磁重联并释放能量,从而加热色球和日冕。为了解开日冕加热和色球加热等未解之谜,对磁亮点的研究显示出它特殊的重要性。对磁亮点的基本特征、形成原理、观测证据、光球磁亮点和太阳大气其他亮点之间的关系,以及磁亮点对日冕加热贡献等方面进行了介绍和讨论。     

太阳大气中的光球亮点

首先是对太阳光球亮点近年来研究工作的总结。光球亮点是一种发生在太阳光球上宁静区域的的小尺度和短寿命增亮现象,平均直径在100～300knm之间,平均寿命约为几分钟。光球亮点的研究对于光球辐射和磁场性质的认识具有重要意义。过去的观测显示,绝大多数光球亮点的产生和演化与磁场,特别是光球上的小尺度磁场的演化密切相关,比如,两个同极性磁场的合并,或者反极性磁场的对消,或者一个同极性磁场的分裂,均可以促使光球亮点产生或消失。基于这样的观测结果,统计研究了2722个光球亮点(1600A)与光球上偶极磁元的关系,发现大约有1/3的光球亮点出现在偶极磁元中心附近。     

日冕物质抛射的中性电流片及边源辐射对

利用日本阳光卫星上的软X－射线望远镜，硬X－射线望远镜和野边山射电日像仪1998年4月23日观测资料，对软X－射线日冕物质抛射和射电Ⅳ型爆发进行了综合研究，获得了下列有意义的结果。在2个磁偶极源之间发现了磁容带和少数的激活源。激活源将磁容带变成磁能带的过程，正是中性电流片的形成过程以及激发能量和发亮物质向它集中的过程。当2个磁偶极源被磁能带接通时，则中性电流片形成，并且发生软X－射线日冕物质抛射。物质抛射不仅从中性电流片处升起，也从整个磁能带上升起。软X－射线日冕物质抛射环具有2个足点，它们正是2个磁偶极源。膨胀环的头总是倾向于弱源的足点，因为它是来自2个足点磁压的平衡点。因此它的轨迹是中性线，由中性线便可确定中性电流片的位置。最后，发现了磁能带上中性电流片的边缘辐射对。     

日冕三重无力场电流片的磁场重联

采用二维三分量磁流体力学模型,对日冕三重无力场电流片的磁场重磁联进行了数值研究,揭示了重联过程的基本物理特征,这类重联过程将加热和加速日冕等离子体,并导致多个高温、高密度、高磁螺度的磁岛的形成和向上喷发,这表明,多重无力场电流片的重联可能在日冕磁能释放、上行等离子体的形成和太阳磁场螺度向行星际空间的逃逸方面起重要的作用。     

日冕三重无力场电流片的磁场重联

采用二维三分量磁流体力学模型,对日冕三重无力场电流片的磁场重联进行了数值研究,揭示了重联过程的基本物理特征．这类重联过程将加热和加速日冕等离子体,并导致多个高温、高密度、高磁螺度的磁岛的形成和向上喷发．这表明,多重无力场电流片的重联可能在日冕磁能释放、上行等离子体团的形成和太阳磁场螺度向行星际空间的逃逸方面起重要的作用．     

日冕物质抛射的中性电流片及边源辐射对

利用日本阳光卫星上的软X-射线望远镜、硬X-射线望远镜和野边山射电日像仪1998年4月23日观测资料,对软X-射线日冕物质抛射和射电Ⅳ型爆发进行了综合研究,获得了下列有意义的结果.在2个磁偶极源之间发现了磁容带和少数的激活源.激活源将磁容带变成磁能带的过程,正是中性电流片的形成过程以及激发能量和发亮物质向它集中的过程.当2个磁偶极源被磁能带接通时,则中性电流片形成,并且发生软X-射线日冕物质抛射.物质抛射不仅从中性电流片处升起,也从整个磁能带上升起.软X-射线日冕物质抛射环具有2个足点,它们正是2个磁偶极源.膨胀环的头总是倾向于弱源的足点,因为它是来自2个足点磁压的平衡点.因此它的轨迹是中性线,由中性线便可确定中性电流片的位置.最后,发现了磁能带上中性电流片的边源辐射对.     

加热日冕的磁毯

半个多世纪以来,天文学家一直在考虑太阳的外层大气,即日冕,为什么会这么热,超过一百万度,而太阳的表面（光球）温度却只有６０００℃。美国宇航局和欧洲空间局联合建立的太阳和太阳风层观测台（ＳＯＨＯ）的资料表明是磁能加热了日冕。斯坦福空间研究所的艾伦·蒂特...     

磁对消引起的日珥扰动

采用二维三分量理想磁流体力学模型,研究光球磁对消引起的日珥扰动．日珥下方光球表面的磁对消将磁通量向日珥传输,引起日珥内部磁通量和磁螺度增加．日珥的状态与所积累的磁通量（或磁螺度）有关．数值结果显示,如果日珥磁通的相对增量δＦ（或相应的磁螺度相对增量δＨ）较小,日珥只略微上升和膨胀,并不离开光球;而对于较大的δＦ或δＨ）;日珥将脱离光球,悬浮在低层日冕中,在其下方形成垂直电流片．     

日冕为什么加热

太阳光球温度(常用开氏温标)约为5000度左右,光球上面的色球温度从底部的5500多度上升到顶部的几万度。按理说太阳的热源在日核,越往外温度应越低才对,为什么色球的情况相反呢?更有甚者,色球外面日冕的温度高达200万度。日冕为什么会有如此高温呢?这至今还是一个科学之谜。     

On the transport of magnetic energy and complexity to the solar corona

For the active corona—a system consisting of electromagnetic fields and particles, the only open field surface is the solar photosphere. Interaction between the velocity and magnetic fields on the photosphere is the primary cause of the upward transport of magnetic energy and complexity to the corona, with the diffusion process there also playing a role.     

Role of magnetic carpet in coronal heating

One of the fundamental questions in solar physics is how the solar corona maintains its high temperature of several million Kelvin above photosphere with a temperature of 6000 K. Observations show that solar coronal heating problem is highly complex with many different facts. It is likely that different heating mechanisms are at work in the solar corona. The separate kinds of coronal loops may also be heated by different mechanisms. Using data from instruments onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and from the more recent Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) scientists have identified small regions of mixed polarity, termed magnetic carpet contributing to solar activity on a short time scale. Magnetic loops of all sizes rise into the solar corona, arising from regions of opposite magnetic polarity in the photosphere. Energy released when oppositely directed magnetic fields meet in the corona is one likely cause for coronal heating. There is enough energy coming up from the loops of the “magnetic carpet” to heat the corona to its known temperature.     

Radiative Cooling in MHD Models of the Quiet Sun Convection Zone and Corona

We present a series of numerical simulations of the quiet-Sun plasma threaded by magnetic fields that extend from the upper convection zone into the low corona. We discuss an efficient, simplified approximation to the physics of optically thick radiative transport through the surface layers, and investigate the effects of convective turbulence on the magnetic structure of the Sun’s atmosphere in an initially unipolar (open field) region. We find that the net Poynting flux below the surface is on average directed toward the interior, while in the photosphere and chromosphere the net flow of electromagnetic energy is outward into the solar corona. Overturning convective motions between these layers driven by rapid radiative cooling appears to be the source of energy for the oppositely directed fluxes of electromagnetic energy.     

太阳宏观电场测量进展

太阳耀斑爆发时,日冕中磁自由能通过磁重联在短时间内转换成其他形式的能量,并伴随等离子体的加速和加热,以及带电粒子的加速。在这些过程中,宏观电场的出现起到关键的作用。但是到目前为止,由于太阳上宏观电场的探测比较困难,对电场的研究较少。近几年来随着一系列空间探测卫星被投入使用,加深了人们对日地空间事件发生、发展的物理过程的认识。但是太阳爆发和日冕加热机制等磁活动现象没有得到本质上的认识。太阳宏观电场的探测对突破这一瓶颈具有重要作用。综述了国内外在太阳宏观电场测量上的进展,并提出中国巨型望远镜(ChineseGiant Solar Telescope)在宏观电场观测上可能的科学目标。     

Evolution of the Fine Structure of Magnetic Fields in the Quiet Sun: Observations from Sunrise/IMaX and Extrapolations

Observations with the balloon-borne Sunrise/Imaging Magnetograph eXperiment (IMaX) provide high spatial resolution (roughly 100 km at disk center) measurements of the magnetic field in the photosphere of the quiet Sun. To investigate the magnetic structure of the chromosphere and corona, we extrapolate these photospheric measurements into the upper solar atmosphere and analyze a 22-minute long time series with a cadence of 33 seconds. Using the extrapolated magnetic-field lines as tracer, we investigate temporal evolution of the magnetic connectivity in the quiet Sun’s atmosphere. The majority of magnetic loops are asymmetric in the sense that the photospheric field strength at the loop foot points is very different. We find that the magnetic connectivity of the loops changes rapidly with a typical connection recycling time of about 3±1 minutes in the upper solar atmosphere and 12±4 minutes in the photosphere. This is considerably shorter than previously found. Nonetheless, our estimate of the energy released by the associated magnetic-reconnection processes is not likely to be the sole source for heating the chromosphere and corona in the quiet Sun.     

A model for X-ray bright points due to unequal cancelling flux sources

A recent discovery from the Big Bear Solar Observatory has linked the cancellation of opposite polarity magnetic fragments in the photosphere (i.e., so-called cancelling magnetic features) to X-ray bright points and has stimulated the setting up of a converging flux model for the process. Cancelling magnetic features can occur between magnetic fragments of differing strengths in many different situations. Here, therefore, we model two opposite polarity fragments of different strengths in the photosphere by two unequal sources in an overlying uniform field. Initially in thepre-interaction phase these sources are assumed to be unconnected, but as they move closer together theinteraction phase starts with an X-type neutral point forming, initially on the photosphere, then rising up into the chromosphere and corona before lowering back down to the photosphere. Thecapture phase then follows with the sources fully connected as they move together. Finally, after they come in to contact, during thecancellation phase the weaker source is cancelled by part of the stronger source. The height of the X-type neutral point varies with the separation of the sources and the ratio of the source strengths, as do the positions of the neutral points before connection and after complete reconnection of the two sources. The neutral point is the location of magnetic reconnection and therefore energy release which is believed to power the X-ray bright point in the corona. By using a current sheet approximation, where it is assumed no reconnection takes place as the two sources move together, the total amount of energy released during reconnection may be estimated. The typical total free magnetic energy is found to be of the order of 10²⁰–10²¹ J, which is as required for an X-ray bright point. It is also found that, as the ratio of the source strengths increases, the height of the X-type neutral point decreases, as do the total energy released, and the lifetime of the bright point.     

Photospheric Network as the Energy Source for the quiet-Sun corona

We propose a mechanism for the formation of a magnetic energy avalanche based on highly dynamic phenomena within the ubiquitous small-scale network magnetic elements in the quiet photosphere. We suggest that this mechanism may provide constant mass and energy supply for the corona and fast wind. Constantly emerging from sub-surface layers, flux tubes collide and reconnect generating magneto-hydrodynamic shocks that experience strong gradient acceleration in the sharply stratified photosphere/chromosphere region. Acoustic and fast magnetosonic branches of these waves lead to heating and/or jet formation due to cumulative effects (Tarbell et al., 1999). The Alfvén waves generated by post-reconnection processes have quite a restricted range of parameters for shock formation, but their frequency, determined by the reconnection rate, may be high enough (0.1–2.5 s^–1) to carry the energy into the corona. We also suggest that the primary energy source for the fast wind lies far below the coronal heights, and that the chromosphere and transition region flows and also radiative transient form the base of the fast wind. The continuous supply of emerging magnetic flux tubes provides a permanent energy production process capable of explaining the steady character of the fast wind and its energetics.     

Solar activity and the corona

This review puts together what we have learned about coronal structures and phenomenology to synthesize a physical picture of the corona as a voluminous, thermally and electrically highly-conducting atmosphere responding dynamically to the injection of magnetic flux from below. The synthesis describes complementary roles played by the magnetic heating of the corona, the different types of flares, and the coronal mass ejections as physical processes by which magnetic flux and helicity make their way from below the photosphere into the corona, and, ultimately, into interplanetary space. In these processes, a physically meaningful interplay among dissipative magnetohydrodynamic turbulence, ideal ordered flows, and magnetic helicity determines how and when the rich variety of relatively long-lived coronal structures, spawned by the emerged magnetic flux, will evolve quasi-steadily or erupt with the impressive energies characteristic of flares and coronal mass ejections. Central to this picture is the suggestion, based on recent theoretical and observational works, that the the emerged flux may take the form of a twisted flux rope residing principally in the corona. Such a flux rope is identified with the low-density cavity at the base of a coronal helmet, often but not always encasing a quiescent prominence. The flux rope may either be bodily transported into the corona from below the photosphere, or reform out of a state of flaring turbulence under some suitable constraint of magnetic-helicity conservation. The appeal of this synthesis is its physical simplicity and the manner it relates a large set of diverse phenomena into a self-consistent whole. The implications of this view point are discussed.The topics covered are: the large-scale corona; helmet streamers; quiescent prominences; coronal mass ejections; flares and heating; magnetic reconnection and magnetic helicity; and, the hydromagnetics of magnetic flux emergence.The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.     

灾变理论在太阳物理和天体物理其他研究领域中的应用

叙述和介绍了太阳爆发的磁通量绳灾变理论和模型的发展过程,强调了建立这样的模型所需要的观测基础。讨论了由模型所预言的爆发磁结构的几个重要特征以及观测结果对这种预言的证实。在此模型的基础上,讨论了一个典型的爆发过程中所出现的不同现象及它们之间的相互关系。最后,介绍了作者的一项最新尝试:将太阳爆发的灾变理论和模型应用到对黑洞吸积盘间歇性喷流的理论研究当中,以及研究所取得的初步结果。