An optimization approach to reconstructing force-free fields from boundary data: II. Numerical results
Abstract
The reconstruction of force-free fields from boundary data is an important problem in solar physics. Reliable reconstructions of fields in active regions may allow detailed tests of existing theories of the physics of solar flares and of coronal heating. A new method, based on minimizing a global objective function describing the departure from a force-free and solenoidal state, has been presented in a talk at this meeting. A computer code to reconstruct arbitrary 3-d fields from boundary data, based on this approach, has been written and is being tested. We describe the details of the implementation of the method and the numerical results obtained. The method has been tested against known analytic force-free solutions, which highlight the advantages and shortcomings of our approach. We also describe the application of the method to real boundary data, and outline particular physical problems that we hope to address with our code. This work was supported in part by Air Force grant F49620-95-1-008 and NASA grants NAS 8-37334 and NAGW-2265.
- Publication:
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AAS/Solar Physics Division Meeting #28
- Pub Date:
- May 1997
- Bibcode:
- 1997SPD....28.1604W