On the mechanical heating of the external layers of the sun - A methodological discussion
Abstract
Theoretical treatments of the mechanical heating of the external layers of stars are reviewed; the problem is posed as one of stationary nonhomogeneous turbulence (that is, the Rayleigh-Benard problem) with the essential difficulty lying in the solution of a hierarchy of equations of motion, mass and energy through a chosen closure hypothesis. In particular, the closure relation proposed by Schwarzschild (1948), which makes reference to acoustic waves, and the closure hypothesis of Schatzman (1949), a more general treatment based on linear acoustics, are analyzed. It is suggested that a description of the propagation of an isolated unsustained shock in a homogeneous compressible fluid at rest, developed by Brinkley and Kirkwood (1947), may be quite effectively applied to the problem of the heating of the solar atmosphere.
- Publication:
-
Memorie della Societa Astronomica Italiana
- Pub Date:
- September 1976
- Bibcode:
- 1976MmSAI..47..365S
- Keywords:
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- Atmospheric Heating;
- Closure Law;
- Kinetic Heating;
- Mathematical Models;
- Stellar Atmospheres;
- Stellar Models;
- Acoustics;
- Atmospheric Turbulence;
- Convective Flow;
- Mixing Length Flow Theory;
- Shock Heating;
- Solar Atmosphere;
- Solar Corona;
- Solar Physics