Related papers: Locating current sheets in the solar corona
The thickness of current sheets is extremely important, especially as it relates to the onset of fast magnetic reconnection. Onset determines how much magnetic free energy can build up in a field before it is explosively released. This has…
From pulsar scintillations we infer the presence of sheet-like structures in the ISM; it has been suggested that these are current sheets. Current sheets probably play an important role in heating the solar corona, and there is evidence for…
The squashing factor Q (Titov et al. 2002), a property of the magnetic field line mapping, has been suggested as an indicator for the formation of current sheets, and subsequently magnetic reconnection, in astrophysical plasmas. Here we…
Magnetic reconnection changes the magnetic field topology and powers explosive events in astrophysical, space and laboratory plasmas. For flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in the solar atmosphere, the standard model predicts the…
Magnetic neutral points, where the magnitude of the magnetic field vanishes locally, are potential locations for energy conversion in the solar corona. The fact that the magnetic field is identically zero at these points suggests that for…
We investigate the dynamical evolution of magnetic fields in closed regions of solar and stellar coronae. To understand under which conditions current sheets form, we examine dissipative and ideal reduced magnetohydrodynamic models in…
The origin and evolution of the magnetic helicity in the solar corona are not well understood. For instance, the magnetic helicity of an active region is often about $10^{42}$ Mx$^2$ ($10^{26}$ Wb$^{2}$), but the observed processes whereby…
Multiwavelength observations of the propagating disturbances (PDs), discovered by Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) onboard Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), are analyzed to determine its driving mechanism and physical nature. Two magnetic…
Recent radioastronomical observations of Faraday rotation in the solar corona can be interpreted as evidence for coronal currents, with values as large as $2.5 \times 10^9$ Amperes (Spangler 2007). These estimates of currents are used to…
[..] The change in the magnetic configuration due to the increase/decrease of electric current for different force-free models (potential, linear and nonlinear force-free fields) has never been studied in detail before. Here we focus…
With the development of new instrumentation providing measurements of solar photospheric vector magnetic fields, we need to develop our understanding of the effects of current density on coronal magnetic field configurations. The object is…
The elongated bright structures above solar flare loops are suggested to be current sheets, where magnetic reconnection takes place. Observations have revealed various characteristics of the current sheet; however, their physical origin…
The formation of a thin current sheet in a magnetic quasi-separatrix layer (QSL) is investigated by means of numerical simulation using a simplified ideal, low-$\beta$, MHD model. The initial configuration and driving boundary conditions…
It is clear that the solar corona is being heated and that coronal magnetic fields undergo reconnection all the time. Here we attempt to show that these two facts are in fact related - i.e. coronal reconnection generates heat. This attempt…
Parker (1983) suggested a mechanism for the formation of current sheets (CSs) in the solar atmosphere. His main idea was that the tangling of coronal magnetic field lines by photospheric random flows facilitates the continuous formation of…
As a fundamental magnetic structure in the solar corona, electric current sheets (CSs) can form either prior to or during solar flare, and they are essential for magnetic energy dissipation in the solar corona by enabling magnetic…
Magnetic reconnection before flux cancellation in the solar photosphere when two opposite-polarity photospheric magnetic fragments are approaching one another is usually modelled by assuming that a small so-called "floating current sheet"…
Although the analysis of observational data indicates that quasi-separatrix layers (QSLs) have to play an important role in magnetic configurations of solar flares, the corresponding theory is only at an initial stage so far. In particular,…
Recent work suggested that the traditional picture of the corona above the quiet Sun being rooted in the magnetic concentrations of the chromospheric network alone is strongly questionable. Building on that previous study we explore the…
We present the first results of three-dimensional (3D) numerical magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of the onset of magnetic reconnection via the tearing instability in dynamically thinning current sheets in the solar corona. In all our…