Related papers: Locating current sheets in the solar corona
Coronal condensation and rain are a crucial part of the mass cycle between the corona and chromosphere. In some cases, condensation and subsequent rain originate in the magnetic dips formed during magnetic reconnection. This provides a new…
This paper is the third in a series of papers working towards the construction of a realistic, evolving, non-linear force-free coronal field model for the solar magnetic carpet. Here, we present preliminary results of 3D time-dependent…
Coronal electric currents store the magnetic energy that is released in solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Here, we use photospheric vector magnetic field observations to study currents in active regions 10930 and 11158, which…
Two of the most important features of the solar atmosphere are its hot, smooth coronal loops and the concentrations of magnetic shear, known as filament channels, that reside above photospheric polarity inversion lines (PILs). The shear…
The energy released during solar flares is believed to be stored in non-potential magnetic fields associated with electric currents flowing in the corona. While no measurements of coronal electric currents are presently available, maps of…
The present work is on the study of a coronal streamer observed in March 2008 at high spectral and spatial resolution by the Ultraviolet Coronagraph Spectrometer (UVCS) onboard SOHO. On the basis of a spectroscopic analysis of the O VI…
Sunspots on the surface of the Sun are the observational signatures of intense manifestations of tightly packed magnetic field lines, with near-vertical field strengths exceeding 6,000 G in extreme cases. It is well accepted that both the…
Coronal heating through the explosive release of magnetic energy remains an open problem in solar physics. Recent hydrodynamical models attempt an investigation by placing swarms of 'nanoflares' at random sites and times in modeled…
Context. Photospheric motions shuffle the footpoints of the strong axial magnetic field that threads coronal loops giving rise to turbulent nonlinear dynamics characterized by the continuous formation and dissipation of field-aligned…
One puzzling observed property of coronal loops is that they are of roughly constant thickness along their length. Various studies have found no consistent pattern of width variation along the length of loops observed by TRACE and SOHO.…
The Sun's magnetic field is a key driver in coronal heating and consequently solar wind acceleration. Remote measurement of the photosphere provides the magnetic surface boundary condition necessary for data-constrained 3D global coronal…
Context. The recent discovery of much greater magnetic flux cancellation taking place at the photosphere than previously realised has led us in our previous works to suggest magnetic reconnection driven by flux cancellation as the cause of…
The coronal heating problem is one of the most critical challenges in solar physics. Recent observations have revealed that small-scale swirls are ubiquitous in the photosphere and chromosphere, suggesting that they may play a significant…
Coronal loops are building blocks of solar active regions. However, their formation mechanism is still not well understood. Here we present direct observational evidence for the formation of coronal loops through magnetic reconnection as…
A large part of the hot corona consists of magnetically confined, bright plasma loops. These observed loops are in turn structured into bright strands. We investigate the relationship between magnetic field geometry, plasma properties and…
There is growing evidence that when magnetic reconnection occurs in high Lundquist number plasmas such as in the Solar Corona or the Earth's Magnetosphere it does so within a fragmented, rather than a smooth current layer. Within the extent…
We analyze a series of three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic numerical simulations of magnetic reconnection in a model solar corona to study the effect of the guide field component on quasi-steady state interchange reconnection in a…
Data from recent numerical simulations of the solar corona and transition region are analysed and the magnetic field connection between the low corona and the photosphere is found to be close to that of a potential field. The fieldline to…
When magnetic flux emerges from beneath the photosphere it displaces the preexisting field in the corona, and a current sheet generally forms at the boundary between the old and new magnetic domains. Reconnection in the current sheet…
Coronal holes (CHs) are darker than quiet Sun (QS) when observed in coronal channels. This study aims to understand the similarities and differences between CHs and QS in the transition region using the \ion{Si}{4}~1394~{\AA} line recorded…