Roles of Reconnection in the Solar Atmosphere
Abstract
Impulsive energy release on the Sun occurs on a vast range of scales, from the nanoflares thought to heat much of the corona to coronal mass ejections and eruptive flares. From the highly collisional, neutral-dominated photosphere to the rarefied, low-beta corona, reconnection at current sheets changes large-scale magnetic connectivity, drives flows, and heats and accelerates particles. However, unlike geospace and the solar wind, in-situ observations of the reconnection process on the Sun are impossible. High-resolution imaging and spectroscopy have yielded strong evidence for the macroscopic effects of reconnection in the chromosphere and corona, while numerical simulations have laid the foundations for understanding how and where reconnection operates in the solar atmosphere. I will discuss some of the best existing examples of this fundamental process, and suggest ways to reach long-sought closure between theory and observations of reconnection-driven solar activity.
Judy Karpen is a solar physicist and Chief of the Space Weather Laboratory at NASA/GSFC. Her research interests include the origins of solar eruptions from coronal jets to CMEs, the formation and evolution of solar prominences, flare particle acceleration, and the physics of magnetic reconnection.- Publication:
-
2018 Triennial Earth-Sun Summit (TESS)
- Pub Date:
- May 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018tess.conf10801K