Self-consistent 3D radiative MHD simulations of coronal rain formation and evolution

Abstract

Coronal rain consists of cool and dense plasma condensations formed in coronal loops as a result of thermal instability. Previous numerical simulations of thermal instability and coronal rain formation have relied on artificially adding a coronal heating term to the energy equation. To reproduce large-scale characteristics of the corona, using more realistic coronal heating prescription is necessary. We analyse coronal rain formation and evolution in a 3-dimensional radiative magnetohydrodynamic simulation spanning from convection zone to corona which is self-consistently heated by magnetic field braiding as a result of convective motions. We investigate the spatial and temporal evolution of energy dissipation along coronal loops which become thermally unstable. Ohmic dissipation in the model leads to the heating events capable of inducing sufficient chromospheric evaporation into the loop to trigger thermal instability and condensation formation. The cooling of the thermally unstable plasma occurs on timescales comparable to the duration of the individual impulsive heating events. The impulsive heating has sufficient duration to trigger thermal instability in the loop but does not last long enough to lead to coronal rain limit cycles. We show that condensations can either survive and fall into the chromosphere or be destroyed by strong bursts of Joule heating associated with a magnetic reconnection events. In addition, we find that condensations can also form along open magnetic field lines.

arXiv comment10 pages, 8 figures, accepted by A&A

References in corpus (36)

• The stellar atmosphere simulation code Bifrost
• An Ab Initio Approach to the Solar Coronal Heating Problem
• CHIANTI - an atomic database for emission lines - Paper XV: Version 9, improvements for the X-ray satellite lines
• Observing the fine structure of loops through high resolution spectroscopic observations of coronal rain with the CRISP instrument at the Swedish Solar Telescope
• A publicly available simulation of an enhanced network region of the Sun
• Evidence of Non-Thermal Particles in Coronal Loops Heated Impulsively by Nanoflares
• Coronal rain as a marker for coronal heating mechanisms
• The influence of numerical resolution on coronal density in hydrodynamic models of impulsive heating
• Formation of Solar Filaments by Steady and Nonsteady Chromospheric Heating
• The multi-thermal and multi-stranded nature of coronal rain
• Unprecedented Fine Structure of a Solar Flare Revealed by the 1.6~m New Solar Telescope
• Multidimensional modeling of coronal rain dynamics
• Evidence for evaporation-incomplete condensation cycles in warm solar coronal loops
• Numerical Simulations of Coronal Heating through Footpoint Braiding
• On fibrils and field lines: The nature of H$\alpha$ fibrils in the solar chromosphere
• On the occurrence of thermal non-equilibrium in coronal loops
• Coronal rain in magnetic arcades: Rebound shocks, Limit cycles, and Shear flows
• Long-period intensity pulsations in the solar corona during activity cycle 23
• Observations of Solar Coronal Rain in Null Point Topologies
• Reconnection-Condensation Model for Solar Prominence Formation
• The Coronal Monsoon: Thermal Nonequilibrium Revealed by Periodic Coronal Rain
• The Role of Asymmetries in Thermal Non-Equilibrium
• The Distinction Between Thermal Nonequilibrium and Thermal Instability
• IRIS observations of short-term variability in moss associated with transient hot coronal loops
• Observing the formation of flare-driven coronal rain
• Coronal rain in magnetic bipolar weak fields
• The effects of numerical resolution, heating timescales and background heating on thermal non-equilibrium in coronal loops
• Signatures of impulsive localized heating in the temperature distribution of multi-stranded coronal loops
• Simulating coronal condensation dynamics in 3D
• Multi-scale observations of thermal non-equilibrium cycles in coronal loops
• 3D Solar Null Point Reconnection MHD Simulations
• DISPATCH: A Numerical Simulation Framework for the Exa-scale Era. I. Fundamentals
• Electron Beams Cannot Directly Produce Coronal Rain
• Impulsive coronal heating from large-scale magnetic rearrangements: from IRIS to SDO/AIA
• Formation of coronal rain triggered by impulsive heating associated with magnetic reconnection
• Identification of coronal heating events in 3D simulations

Cited by in corpus (15)

• Coronal rain in randomly heated arcades
• A Comprehensive Radiative Magnetohydrodynamics Simulation of Active Region Scale Flux Emergence from the Convection Zone to the Corona
• Mixed properties of slow magnetoacoustic and entropy waves in a plasma with heating/cooling misbalance
• When hot meets cold: post-flare coronal rain
• On-disk solar coronal condensations facilitated by magnetic reconnection between open and closed magnetic structures
• Large ion-neutral drift velocities and plasma heating in partially ionized coronal rain blobs
• Excitation and evolution of coronal oscillations in self-consistent 3D radiative MHD simulations of the solar atmosphere
• 3D coupled tearing-thermal evolution in solar current sheets
• Simulation of Thermal Nonequilibrium Cycles in the Solar Wind
• Can we rely on EUV emission to identify coronal waveguides?
• Damping of coronal oscillations in self-consistent 3D radiative MHD simulations of the solar atmosphere
• A fast multi-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic formulation of the transition region adaptive conduction (TRAC) method
• Effect of optically thin cooling curves on condensation formation: Case study using thermal instability
• On the Influence of the Ionization-Recombination Processes on Hydrogen Plasma Polytropic Index
• Thermal Non-equilibrium Cycles in a Non-eruptive Pseudo-Streamer