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The solar atmosphere shows anomalous variation in temperature, starting from the 5500 K photosphere to the million-degree Kelvin corona. The corona itself expands into the interstellar medium as the free streaming solar wind, which…
The temperature of the solar atmosphere increases from thousands to millions of degrees moving from the lower layer (chromosphere) to the outermost one (corona), while the density drops accordingly. The mechanism behind this phenomenon,…
Although the mechanisms responsible for heating the Sun's corona and accelerating the solar wind are still being actively investigated, it is largely accepted that photospheric motions provide the energy source and that the magnetic field…
The Sun's corona is millions of degrees hotter than its 5,000 K photosphere. This heating enigma is typically addressed by invoking the deposition at coronal heights of non-thermal energy generated by the interplay between convection and…
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…
Operating experience from fusion research shows how Spitzer resistivity may render ohmic heating in the chromosphere self limiting and thus serve to define the lower margin of the transition region. Its upper margin is at about 6000 K,…
Plasma in the Sun's hot corona expands into the heliosphere as a supersonic and highly magnetized solar wind. This paper provides an overview of our current understanding of how the corona is heated and how the solar wind is accelerated.…
Gravitational lensing of invisible streaming matter towards the Sun could be the explanation of the puzzling solar flares and the unexplained solar emission in the EUV. Assuming that this invisible matter has some form of interaction with…
The corona is a layer of hot plasma that surrounds the Sun, traces out its complex magnetic field, and ultimately expands into interplanetary space as the supersonic solar wind. Although much has been learned in recent decades from advances…
Solar atmosphere is a single system unified by the presence of large-scale magnetic fields. Topological changes in magnetic fields that occur in one place may have consequences for coronal heating and eruptions for other, even remote…
This paper reviews our growing understanding of the physics behind coronal heating (in open-field regions) and the acceleration of the solar wind. Many new insights have come from the last solar cycle's worth of observations and theoretical…
The Sun's outer atmosphere is heated to temperatures of millions of degrees, and solar plasma flows out into interplanetary space at supersonic speeds. This paper reviews our current understanding of these interrelated problems: coronal…
The elemental composition of the Sun's hot atmosphere, the corona, shows a distinctive pattern that is different than the underlying surface, or photosphere (Pottasch 1963). Elements that are easy to ionize in the chromosphere are enhanced…
Parker's initial insights from 1958 provided a key causal link between the heating of the solar corona and the acceleration of the solar wind. However, we still do not know what fraction of the solar wind's mass, momentum, and energy flux…
The X-ray emission from the Sun reveals a very dynamic hot atmosphere, the corona, which is characterized by a complex morphology and broad range of timescales of variability and spatial structuring. The solar magnetic fields play a…
The coronal heating problem remains one of the most challenging questions in solar physics. The energy driving coronal heating is widely understood to be associated with convective motions below the photosphere. Recent high-resolution…
The Sun continuously expels a fraction of its own mass in the form of a steadily accelerating outflow of ionized gas called the "solar wind." The solar wind is the extension of the Sun's hot (million-degree Kelvin) outer atmosphere that is…
How magnetic energy is injected and released in the solar corona, keeping it heated to several million degrees, remains elusive. Coronal heating generally increases with increasing magnetic field strength. From comparison of a non-linear…
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 Sun is the major source of heat and light in our solar system. The solar cycle is the 11-year cycle of solar activity that can be determined by the rise and fall in the numbers and surface area of sunspots. Solar activity is associated…