1,652 research outputs found
Low-Latitude Coronal Holes at the Minimum of the 23rd Solar Cycle
Low and mid-latitude coronal holes (CHs) observed on the Sun during the
current solar activity minimum (from September 21, 2006, Carrington rotation
(CR) 2048, until June 26, 2009 (CR 2084)) were analyzed using {\it SOHO}/EIT
and STEREO-A SECCHI EUVI data. From both the observations and Potential Field
Source Surface (PFSS) modeling, we find that the area occupied by CHs inside a
belt of around the solar equator is larger in the current 2007
solar minimum relative to the similar phase of the previous 1996 solar minimum.
The enhanced CH area is related to a recurrent appearance of five persistent
CHs, which survived during 7-27 solar rotations. Three of the CHs are of
positive magnetic polarity and two are negative. The most long-lived CH was
being formed during 2 days and existed for 27 rotations. This CH was associated
with fast solar wind at 1 AU of approximately 620 km s. The 3D
MHD modeling for this time period shows an open field structure above this CH.
We conclude that the global magnetic field of the Sun possessed a multi-pole
structure during this time period. Calculation of the harmonic power spectrum
of the solar magnetic field demonstrates a greater prevalence of multi-pole
components over the dipole component in the 2007 solar minimum compared to the
1996 solar minimum. The unusual large separation between the dipole and
multi-pole components is due to the very low magnitude of the dipole component,
which is three times lower than that in the previous 1996 solar minimum.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure
A Model for the Sources of the Slow Solar Wind
Models for the origin of the slow solar wind must account for two seemingly
contradictory observations: The slow wind has the composition of the closed
field corona, implying that it originates from the continuous opening and
closing of flux at the boundary between open and closed field. On the other
hand, the slow wind also has large angular width, up to ~ 60{\circ}, suggesting
that its source extends far from the open-closed boundary. We propose a model
that can explain both observations. The key idea is that the source of the slow
wind at the Sun is a network of narrow (possibly singular) open-field corridors
that map to a web of separatrices and quasi-separatrix layers in the
heliosphere. We compute analytically the topology of an open-field corridor and
show that it produces a quasi-separatrix layer in the heliosphere that extends
to angles far from the heliospheric current sheet. We then use an MHD code and
MDI/SOHO observations of the photospheric magnetic field to calculate
numerically, with high spatial resolution, the quasi-steady solar wind and
magnetic field for a time period preceding the August 1, 2008 total solar
eclipse. Our numerical results imply that, at least for this time period, a web
of separatrices (which we term an S-web) forms with sufficient density and
extent in the heliosphere to account for the observed properties of the slow
wind. We discuss the implications of our S-web model for the structure and
dynamics of the corona and heliosphere, and propose further tests of the model
Tactical diagrammatic reasoning
Although automated reasoning with diagrams has been possible for some years,
tools for diagrammatic reasoning are generally much less sophisticated than
their sentential cousins. The tasks of exploring levels of automation and
abstraction in the construction of proofs and of providing explanations of
solutions expressed in the proofs remain to be addressed. In this paper we take
an interactive proof assistant for Euler diagrams, Speedith, and add tactics to
its reasoning engine, providing a level of automation in the construction of
proofs. By adding tactics to Speedith's repertoire of inferences, we ease the
interaction between the user and the system and capture a higher level
explanation of the essence of the proof. We analysed the design options for
tactics by using metrics which relate to human readability, such as the number
of inferences and the amount of clutter present in diagrams. Thus, in contrast
to the normal case with sentential tactics, our tactics are designed to not
only prove the theorem, but also to support explanation
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