Heating mechanisms in the low solar atmosphere through magnetic reconnection in current sheets

Abstract

We simulate several magnetic reconnection processes in the low solar chromosphere/photosphere, the radiation cooling, heat conduction and ambipolar diffusion are all included. Our numerical results indicate that both the high temperature($\gtrsim 8\times 10^4$~K) and low temperature($\sim 10^4$~K) magnetic reconnection events can happen in the low solar atmosphere ($100\sim 600$~km above the solar surface). The plasma $\beta$ controlled by plasma density and magnetic fields is one important factor to decide how much the plasma can be heated up. The low temperature event is formed in a high $\beta$ magnetic reconnection process, Joule heating is the main mechanism to heat plasma and the maximum temperature increase is only several thousand Kelvin. The high temperature explosions can be generated in a low $\beta$ magnetic reconnection process, slow and fast-mode shocks attached at the edges of the well developed plasmoids are the main physical mechanisms to heat the plasma from several thousand Kelvin to over $8\times 10^4$~K. Gravity in the low chromosphere can strongly hinder the plasmoind instability and the formation of slow-mode shocks in a vertical current sheet. Only small secondary islands are formed; these islands, however, are not well developed as those in the horizontal current sheets. This work can be applied for understanding the heating mechanism in the low solar atmosphere and could possibly be extended to explain the formation of common low temperature EBs ($\sim 10^4$~K) and the high tenperature IRIS bombs ($\gtrsim 8\times 10^4$) in the future.

26 pages, 8 fugures

References in corpus (10)

• Hot Explosions in the Cool Atmosphere of the Sun
• Prevalence of Small-scale Jets from the Networks of the Solar Transition Region and Chromosphere
• Quiet Sun internetwork magnetic fields from the inversion of Hinode measurements
• Fluid description of multi-component solar partially ionized plasma
• Magnetic reconnection between small-scale loops observed with the New Vacuum Solar Telescope
• Spectral observations of Ellerman bombs and fitting with a two-cloud model
• Internetwork magnetic field distribution from simultaneous 1.56 micron and 630 nm observations
• Small-Scale Structuring Of Ellerman Bombs at Solar Limb
• Clusters of small eruptive flares produced by magnetic reconnection in the sun
• Asymmetric Magnetic Reconnection in Weakly Ionized Chromospheric Plasmas

Cited by in corpus (26)

• Observation and Modeling of Solar Jets
• Transient small-scale brightenings in the quiet solar corona: a model for campfires observed with Solar Orbiter
• Ellerman bombs and UV bursts: transient events in chromospheric current sheets
• Magnetic reconnection in strongly magnetized regions of the low solar chromosphere
• Flame-like Ellerman Bombs and Their Connection to Solar UV Bursts
• Observational Evidence of Magnetic Reconnection for Brightenings and Transition Region Arcades in IRIS observations
• Investigating the Transition Region Explosive Events and Their Relationship to Network Jets
• A Magnetic Reconnection model for Hot Explosions in the Cool Atmosphere of the Sun
• Three-dimensional magnetic reconnection in particle-in-cell simulations of anisotropic plasma turbulence
• Two strong white-light solar flares in AR NOAA 12673 as potential clues for stellar superflares
• IRIS observations of magnetic interactions in the solar atmosphere between pre-existing and emerging magnetic fields. II. UV emission properties
• Solar jets observed with the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS)
• RADYN simulations of non-thermal and thermal models of Ellerman bombs
• High-resolution observations of recurrent jets from an arch filament system
• Plausibility of ultraviolet burst generation in the low solar chromosphere
• Current-sheet Oscillations Caused by Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability at the Loop Top of Solar Flares
• Damping of slow surface kink modes in solar photospheric waveguides modeled by one-dimensional inhomogeneities
• Spectroscopic and imaging observations of transient hot and cool loops by IRIS and SDO
• The Ellerman bomb and Ultraviolet burst triggered successively by an emerging magnetic flux rope
• Evaluation of different recipes for chromospheric radiative losses in solar flares
• Ambipolar diffusion: Self-similar solutions and MHD code testing. Cylindrical symmetry
• Decimetric type U solar radio bursts and associated EUV phenomena on 2011 February 9
• Research progress based on observations of the New Vacuum Solar Telescope
• Observations of the formation of a proto-spot in a pre-existing field environment
• Revisiting the Spectral Features of Ellerman Bombs and UV Bursts. I. Radiative Hydrodynamic Simulations
• Magnetic reconnection in partially ionized plasmas