On the thermal stability of coronal loop plasma
Abstract
The stability to thermal perturbation of static models of coronal loops is considered including the effects of cool, radiatively stable material at the loop base. The linear stability turns out to be sensitive only to the boundary conditions assumed on the velocity at the loop base. The question of the appropriate boundary conditions is discussed, and it is concluded that the free surface condition (the pressure perturbation vanishes), rather than the rigid wall (the velocity vanishes), is relevant to the solar case. The static models are found to be thermally unstable, with a growth time of the order of the coronal cooking time. The physical implications of these results for the solar corona and transition region are examined.
- Publication:
-
NASA STI/Recon Technical Report N
- Pub Date:
- August 1982
- Bibcode:
- 1982STIN...8234327A
- Keywords:
-
- Coronal Loops;
- Plasma Temperature;
- Solar Wind;
- Thermal Stability;
- Boundary Conditions;
- Boundary Value Problems;
- Eigenvectors;
- Mathematical Models;
- Plasma Oscillations;
- Sturm-Liouville Theory;
- Solar Physics