A simple model for the evolution of multi-stranded coronal loops

Abstract

We develop and analyze a simple cellular automaton (CA) model that reproduces the main properties of the evolution of soft X-ray coronal loops. We are motivated by the observation that these loops evolve in three distinguishable phases that suggest the development, maintainance, and decay of a self-organized system. The model is based on the idea that loops are made of elemental strands that are heated by the relaxation of magnetic stress in the form of nanoflares. In this vision, usually called "the Parker conjecture" (Parker 1988), the origin of stress is the displacement of the strand footpoints due to photospheric convective motions. Modeling the response and evolution of the plasma we obtain synthetic light curves that have the same characteristic properties (intensity, fluctuations, and timescales) as the observed cases. We study the dependence of these properties on the model parameters and find scaling laws that can be used as observational predictions of the model. We discuss the implications of our results for the interpretation of recent loop observations in different wavelengths.

2010, accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (4)

• Highly Efficient Modeling of Dynamic Coronal Loops
• Active region transition region loop populations and their relationship to the corona
• Are Coronal Loops Isothermal or Multithermal? Yes!
• The temporal evolution of coronal loops observed by GOES-SXI

Cited by in corpus (18)

• Key Aspects of Coronal Heating
• Structure of solar coronal loops: from miniature to large-scale
• Intermittent heating in the solar corona employing a 3D MHD model
• Modeling the Line-of-Sight Integrated Emission in the Corona: Implications for Coronal Heating
• An MHD avalanche model of multi-threaded coronal loop
• 3D MHD modeling of twisted coronal loops
• Widespread nanoflare variability detected with Hinode/XRT in a solar active region
• Evidence of Impulsive Heating in Active Region Core Loops
• Stochastic coupling of solar photosphere and corona
• Patterns of Activity in a Global Model of a Solar Active Region
• Magnetic Jam in the Corona of the Sun
• 2D cellular automaton model for the evolution of active region coronal plasmas
• The First Flight of the Marshall Grazing Incidence X-ray Spectrometer (MaGIXS)
• Solar Active Region Heating Diagnostics from High Temperature Emission using the Marshall Grazing Incidence X-ray Spectrometer (MaGIXS)
• A nanoflare based cellular automaton model and the observed properties of the coronal plasma
• Spatiotemporal organization of energy release events in the quiet solar corona
• Stereoscopic observations reveal coherent morphology and evolution of solar coronal loops
• Energy Definition and Minimization in Avalanche Models for Solar Flares