Related papers: A Contemporary View of Coronal Heating
The Sun provides the main energy input to the terrestrial atmosphere, and yet the impact of solar variability on long-term changes remains a controversial issue. Direct radiative forcing is the most studied mechanism. Other much weaker…
Magnetic fields permeate the entire solar atmosphere weaving an extremely complex pattern on both local and global scales. In order to understand the nature of this tangled web of magnetic fields, its magnetic skeleton, which forms the…
The million degree plasma of the solar corona must be supplied by the underlying layers of the atmosphere. The mechanism and location of energy release, and the precise source of coronal plasma, remain unresolved. In earlier work we pursued…
It has been observed that hot Jupiters located within 0.08 AU of their host stars commonly display radii in excess of those expected based on models. A number of theoretical explanations for this phenomenon have been suggested, but the…
The solar atmosphere may be heated by Alfven waves that propagate up from the convection zone and dissipate their energy in the chromosphere and corona. To further test this theory, we consider wave heating in an active region observed on…
In this topical review I revisit the "chromospheric flare." This should currently be an outdated concept, because modern data seem to rule out the possiblity of a major flare happening independently in the chromosphere alone, but the…
Solar flares and coronal mass ejections are the largest energy release phenomena in the current solar system. They cause drastic enhancements of electromagnetic waves of various wavelengths and sometimes eject coronal material into the…
Coronal holes are the darkest and least active regions of the Sun, as observed both on the solar disk and above the solar limb. Coronal holes are associated with rapidly expanding open magnetic fields and the acceleration of the high-speed…
We present an ab initio approach to the solar coronal heating problem by modelling a small part of the solar corona in a computational box using a 3D MHD code including realistic physics. The observed solar granular velocity pattern and its…
Coupling between the photosphere, chromosphere and corona in the quiet Sun (QS) is governed by a complex interplay between magnetic structuring, heating, mass loading, and radiative cooling. Constraining how this balance responds to…
The corona of the Sun is dominated by emission from loop-like structures. When observed in X-ray or extreme ultraviolet emission, these million K hot coronal loops show a more or less constant cross section. In this study we show how the…
We point out the priority of our paper (Mahajan et al. 2001, Phys. Plasmas, 8, 1340) over (Aschwanden et al. 2007, Astrophys J., 659, 1673) in introducing the term "Formation and primary heating of the solar corona" working out explicit…
Identifying the two physical mechanisms behind the production and sustenance of the quiescent solar corona and solar wind poses two of the outstanding problems in solar physics today. We present analysis of spectroscopic observations from…
The magnetic activity of the Sun directly impacts the Earth and human life. Likewise, other stars will have an impact on the habitability of planets orbiting these host stars. The lack of information on the magnetic field in the higher…
We model a coronal loop as a three-dimensional magnetic cylinder in a realistic solar atmosphere that extends from the chromosphere to the corona. Kink oscillations, believed ubiquitous in the solar corona, are launched in the loop. Heating…
The anomalous heating of the solar upper atmosphere is one of the eight key problems in modern astronomy. Moreover, the stratification of the solar atmosphere is an outstanding key-problem in solar physics. In this study, a hot…
We develop a theoretical model that explains the formation of hot coronae around strongly magnetized neutron stars -- magnetars. The starquakes of a magnetar shear its external magnetic field, which becomes non-potential and is threaded by…
Turbulence, magnetic reconnection, and shocks can be present in explosively unstable plasmas, forming a new electromagnetic environment, which we call here turbulent reconnection, and where spontaneous formation of current sheets takes…
Two of the three gases that display isenthalpic Joule-Thomson (J-T) warming under laboratory conditions are hydrogen and helium, the main constituents of the solar plasma, but the temperatures that are attained by this route are at most a…
Regular remote sensing of the magnetic field embedded within the million-degree solar corona is severely lacking. This reality impedes fundamental investigations of the nature of coronal heating, the generation of solar and stellar winds,…