Radiative Cooling in MHD Models of the Quiet Sun Convection Zone and Corona

Abstract

We present a series of numerical simulations of the quiet Sun plasma threaded by magnetic fields that extend from the upper convection zone into the low corona. We discuss an efficient, simplified approximation to the physics of optically thick radiative transport through the surface layers, and investigate the effects of convective turbulence on the magnetic structure of the Sun's atmosphere in an initially unipolar (open field) region. We find that the net Poynting flux below the surface is on average directed toward the interior, while in the photosphere and chromosphere the net flow of electromagnetic energy is outward into the solar corona. Overturning convective motions between these layers driven by rapid radiative cooling appears to be the source of energy for the oppositely directed fluxes of electromagnetic energy.

20 pages, 5 figures, Solar Physics, in press

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Cited by in corpus (19)

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• The Coronal Global Evolutionary Model: Using HMI Vector Magnetogram and Doppler Data to Model the Buildup of Free Magnetic Energy in the Solar Corona
• Mechanisms for MHD Poynting flux generation in simulations of solar photospheric magneto-convection
• Simulations Show that Vortex Flows could Heat the Chromosphere in Solar Plage
• Interchange Reconnection Alfven Wave Generation
• The PDFI_SS Electric Field Inversion Software
• The Coronal Global Evolutionary Model: Using HMI Vector Magnetogram and Doppler Data to Determine Coronal Magnetic Field Evolution
• On the effects of ion-neutral interactions in solar plasmas
• Dynamic Coupling of Convective Flows and Magnetic Field during Flux Emergence
• Radiation hydrodynamics in simulations of the solar atmosphere
• On the origin of the magnetic energy in the quiet solar chromosphere
• Two-fluid numerical simulations of the origin of the fast solar wind
• Two-fluid numerical model of chromospheric heating and plasma outflows in a quiet-Sun
• Numerical simulations of macrospicule jets under energy imbalance conditions in the solar atmosphere
• Doppler shifts of spectral lines formed in the solar transition region and corona
• Solar magneto-convection
• Validation of the PDFI_SS method for electric field inversions using a magnetic flux emergence simulation
• High $\beta$ magnetic reconnection at different altitudes in the cool low solar atmosphere
• Spatial variation of periods of ion and neutral waves in a solar magnetic arcade