Related papers: Defining the Middle Corona
The "middle corona" is a critical transition between the highly disparate physical regimes of the lower and outer solar corona. Nonetheless, it remains poorly understood due to the difficulty of observing this faint region (1.5-3 solar…
The "middle corona," defined by West et al. (2022) as the region between ~1.5-6 solar radii, is a critical transition region that connects the highly structured lower corona to the outer corona where the magnetic field becomes predominantly…
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…
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…
Waves are thought to play a significant role in the heating of the solar atmosphere and the acceleration of the wind. Among the many types of waves observed in the Sun, the so-called p-modes with a 3 mHz frequency peak dominate the lower…
Spectroscopic observations at extreme and far ultraviolet wavelengths have revealed systematic upflows in the solar transition region and corona. These upflows are best seen in the network structures of the quiet Sun and coronal holes,…
A major goal in solar physics has during the last five decades been to find how energy flux generated in the solar convection zone is transported and dissipated in the outer solar layers. Progress in this field has been slow and…
Meridional circulation regulates the Sun's interior dynamics and magnetism. While it is well accepted that meridional flows are poleward at the Sun's surface, helioseismic observations have yet to provide a definitive answer for the depth…
Determining the mechanisms responsible for the heating of the coronal plasma and maintaining and accelerating the solar wind are long standing goals in solar physics. There is a clear need to constrain the energy, mass and momentum 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 chromosphere is a thin layer of the solar atmosphere that bridges the relatively cool photosphere and the intensely heated transition region and corona. Compressible and incompressible waves propagating through the chromosphere can…
Hinode observations have provided a new view of outflows from the Sun. These have been focussed in particular on flows emanating from the edges of active regions. These flows are long lasting and seem to exist to some extent in every active…
The observed solar activity is believed to be driven by the dissipation of nonpotential magnetic energy injected into the corona by dynamic processes in the photosphere. The enormous range of scales involved in the interaction makes it…
The Sun is the only star that we can spatially resolve and it can be regarded as a fundamental plasma laboratory of astrophysics. The solar transition region (TR), the layer between the solar chromosphere and corona, plays an important role…
Popular scientific summary -- The atmosphere of the Sun is envisioned as composed of inherently complex, non-homogeneous, and dynamic layers. A detailed understanding of the physical processes involved in these layers is still lacking. For…
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…
The atmosphere of the Sun is highly structured and dynamic in nature. From the photosphere and chromosphere into the transition region and the corona plasma-$\beta$ changes from above to below one, i.e. while in the lower atmosphere the…
How the solar atmosphere is heated from a temperature of about $5,000-6,000$\,K in the lower atmosphere to about $1-2$\,MK in the corona has challenged the astrophysical community for about 80 years. The same puzzle exists for the stellar…
The solar corona, the tenuous outer atmosphere of the Sun, is orders of magnitude hotter than the solar surface. This 'coronal heating problem' requires the identification of a heat source to balance losses due to thermal conduction,…
Our current theoretical and observational understanding suggests that critical properties of the solar wind and Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are imparted within 10 Rs, particularly below 4 Rs. This seemingly narrow spatial region…