Catastrophic cooling and cessation of heating in the solar corona

Condensations in the more than 10^6 K hot corona of the Sun are commonly observed in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV). While their contribution to the total solar EUV radiation is still a matter of debate, these condensations certainly provide a valuable tool for studying the dynamic response of the corona to the heating processes. We investigate different distributions of energy input in time and space to investigate which process is most relevant for understanding these coronal condensations. For a comparison to observations we synthesize EUV emission from a time-dependent, one-dimensional model for coronal loops, where we employ two heating scenarios: simply shutting down the heating and a model where the heating is very concentrated at the loop footpoints, while keeping the total heat input constant. The heating off/on model does not lead to significant EUV count rates that one observes with SDO/AIA. In contrast, the concentration of the heating near the footpoints leads to thermal non-equilibrium near the loop top resulting in the well-known catastrophic cooling. This process gives a good match to observations of coronal condensations. This shows that the corona needs a steady supply of energy to support the coronal plasma, even during coronal condensations. Otherwise the corona would drain very fast, too fast to even form a condensation.Comment: Astronomy & Astrophysics, in press, 10 pages, 5 figure

Parametrization of coronal heating: spatial distribution and observable consequences

We investigate the difference in the spatial distribution of the energy input for parametrizations of different mechanisms to heat the corona of the Sun and possible impacts on the coronal emission. We use a 3D MHD model of a solar active region as a reference and compare the Ohmic-type heating in this model to parametrizations for alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) heating models, in particular, we use Alfven wave and MHD turbulence heating. We extract the quantities needed for these two parametrizations from the reference model and investigate the spatial distribution of the heat input in all three cases, globally and along individual field lines. To study differences in the resulting coronal emission we employ 1D loop models with a prescribed heat input based on the heating rate we extracted along a bundle of field lines. On average, all heating implementations show a roughly drop of the heating rate with height. This also holds for individual field lines. While all mechanism show a concentration of the energy input towards the low parts of the atmosphere, for individual field lines the concentration towards the footpoints is much stronger for the DC mechanisms than for the Alfven wave AC case. In contrast, the AC model gives a stronger concentration of the emission towards the footpoints. This is because the more homogeneous distribution of the energy input leads to higher coronal temperatures and a more extended transition region. The significant difference in the concentration of the heat input towards the foot points for the AC and DC mechanisms, and the pointed difference in the spatial distribution of the coronal emission for these cases shows that the two mechanisms should be discriminable by observations. Before drawing final conclusions, these parametrizations should be implemented in new 3D models in a more self-consistent way.Comment: accepted for publication in A&A, 10 pages, 9 figure

Magnetic Jam in the Corona of the Sun

The outer solar atmosphere, the corona, contains plasma at temperatures of more than a million K, more than 100 times hotter that solar surface. How this gas is heated is a fundamental question tightly interwoven with the structure of the magnetic field in the upper atmosphere. Conducting numerical experiments based on magnetohydrodynamics we account for both the evolving three-dimensional structure of the atmosphere and the complex interaction of magnetic field and plasma. Together this defines the formation and evolution of coronal loops, the basic building block prominently seen in X-rays and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) images. The structures seen as coronal loops in the EUV can evolve quite differently from the magnetic field. While the magnetic field continuously expands as new magnetic flux emerges through the solar surface, the plasma gets heated on successively emerging fieldlines creating an EUV loop that remains roughly at the same place. For each snapshot the EUV images outline the magnetic field, but in contrast to the traditional view, the temporal evolution of the magnetic field and the EUV loops can be different. Through this we show that the thermal and the magnetic evolution in the outer atmosphere of a cool star has to be treated together, and cannot be simply separated as done mostly so far.Comment: Final version published online on 27 April 2015, Nature Physics 12 pages and 8 figure

A model for the formation of the active region corona driven by magnetic flux emergence

We present the first model that couples the formation of the corona of a solar active region to a model of the emergence of a sunspot pair. This allows us to study when, where, and why active region loops form, and how they evolve. We use a 3D radiation MHD simulation of the emergence of an active region through the upper convection zone and the photosphere as a lower boundary for a 3D MHD coronal model. The latter accounts for the braiding of the magnetic fieldlines, which induces currents in the corona heating up the plasma. We synthesize the coronal emission for a direct comparison to observations. Starting with a basically field-free atmosphere we follow the filling of the corona with magnetic field and plasma. Numerous individually identifiable hot coronal loops form, and reach temperatures well above 1 MK with densities comparable to observations. The footpoints of these loops are found where small patches of magnetic flux concentrations move into the sunspots. The loop formation is triggered by an increase of upwards-directed Poynting flux at their footpoints in the photosphere. In the synthesized EUV emission these loops develop within a few minutes. The first EUV loop appears as a thin tube, then rises and expands significantly in the horizontal direction. Later, the spatially inhomogeneous heat input leads to a fragmented system of multiple loops or strands in a growing envelope.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, accepted to publication in A&

Investigation of mass flows in the transition region and corona in a three-dimensional numerical model approach

The origin of solar transition region redshifts is not completely understood. Current research is addressing this issue by investigating three-dimensional magneto-hydrodynamic models that extend from the photosphere to the corona. By studying the average properties of emission line profiles synthesized from the simulation runs and comparing them to observations with present-day instrumentation, we investigate the origin of mass flows in the solar transition region and corona. Doppler shifts were determined from the emission line profiles of various extreme-ultraviolet emission lines formed in the range of $T=10^4-10^6$ K. Plasma velocities and mass flows were investigated for their contribution to the observed Doppler shifts in the model. In particular, the temporal evolution of plasma flows along the magnetic field lines was analyzed. Comparing observed vs. modeled Doppler shifts shows a good correlation in the temperature range $\log(T$/[K])=4.5-5.7, which is the basis of our search for the origin of the line shifts. The vertical velocity obtained when weighting the velocity by the density squared is shown to be almost identical to the corresponding Doppler shift. Therefore, a direct comparison between Doppler shifts and the model parameters is allowed. A simple interpretation of Doppler shifts in terms of mass flux leads to overestimating the mass flux. Upflows in the model appear in the form of cool pockets of gas that heat up slowly as they rise. Their low temperature means that these pockets are not observed as blueshifts in the transition region and coronal lines. For a set of magnetic field lines, two different flow phases could be identified. The coronal part of the field line is intermittently connected to subjacent layers of either strong or weak heating, leading either to mass flows into the loop or to the draining of the loop.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure

Influence of large-strain deformation on the microstructure, texture, and mechanical response of tantalum bar

Numerous studies have established the influence of impurities, crystallographic texture, temperature, and strain rate separately or collectively on the constitutive response of annealed tantalum, in particular plate Ta-stock. However, fewer detailed studies have examined the evolution of crystallographic texture and the mechanical response of tantalum bar or rod material following prestraining to large strains {epsilon} > I. In this paper the influence of large plastic prestraining on the microstructure evolution, texture evolution, and mechanical response of high-purity tantalum bar material is presented. Tantalum cylinders annealed at 1200 {degrees}C were quasi-statically upset forged, with intermediate lubrication, to true strains of 0.4, 0.95, and 1.85. Microstructural and textural banding within the starting Ta-bar was characterized in detail. It was found that different oriented bands evolved differently during large-strain forging leading to significant scatter in the mechanical response. Aspects of defect storage, work-hardening response, and texture evolution in Ta-bar as a function of forging strain are discussed

Ejection of cool plasma into the hot corona

We investigate the processes that lead to the formation, ejection and fall of a confined plasma ejection that was observed in a numerical experiment of the solar corona. By quantifying physical parameters such as mass, velocity, and orientation of the plasma ejection relative to the magnetic field, we provide a description of the nature of this particular phenomenon. The time-dependent three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (3D MHD) equations are solved in a box extending from the chromosphere to the lower corona. The plasma is heated by currents that are induced through field line braiding as a consequence of photospheric motions. Spectra of optically thin emission lines in the extreme ultraviolet range are synthesized, and magnetic field lines are traced over time. Following strong heating just above the chromosphere, the pressure rapidly increases, leading to a hydrodynamic explosion above the upper chromosphere in the low transition region. The explosion drives the plasma, which needs to follow the magnetic field lines. The ejection is then moving more or less ballistically along the loop-like field lines and eventually drops down onto the surface of the Sun. The speed of the ejection is in the range of the sound speed, well below the Alfven velocity. The plasma ejection is basically a hydrodynamic phenomenon, whereas the rise of the heating rate is of magnetic nature. The granular motions in the photosphere lead (by chance) to a strong braiding of the magnetic field lines at the location of the explosion that in turn is causing strong currents which are dissipated. Future studies need to determine if this process is a ubiquitous phenomenon on the Sun on small scales. Data from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on the Solar Dynamics Observatory (AIA/SDO) might provide the relevant information.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure

Structure of solar coronal loops: from miniature to large-scale

We will use new data from the High-resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) with unprecedented spatial resolution of the solar corona to investigate the structure of coronal loops down to 0.2 arcsec. During a rocket flight Hi-C provided images of the solar corona in a wavelength band around 193 A that is dominated by emission from Fe XII showing plasma at temperatures around 1.5 MK. We analyze part of the Hi-C field-of-view to study the smallest coronal loops observed so far and search for the a possible sub-structuring of larger loops. We find tiny 1.5 MK loop-like structures that we interpret as miniature coronal loops. These have length of the coronal segment above the chromosphere of only about 1 Mm and a thickness of less than 200 km. They could be interpreted as the coronal signature of small flux tubes breaking through the photosphere with a footpoint distance corresponding to the diameter of a cell of granulation. We find loops that are longer than 50 Mm to have a diameter of about 2 arcsec or 1.5 Mm, consistent with previous observations. However, Hi-C really resolves these loops with some 20 pixels across the loop. Even at this greatly improved spatial resolution the large loops seem to have no visible sub-structure. Instead they show a smooth variation in cross-section. The fact that the large coronal loops do not show a sub-structure at the spatial scale of 0.1 arcsec per pixel implies that either the densities and temperatures are smoothly varying across these loops or poses an upper limit on the diameter of strands the loops might be composed of. We estimate that strands that compose the 2 arcsec thick loop would have to be thinner than 15 km. The miniature loops we find for the first time pose a challenge to be properly understood in terms of modeling.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A (Jun 19, 2013), 11 pages, 10 figure