Solar Wind and Chromospheric Network
Abstract
A physical model of the transition region, including upflow of the plasma in magnetic field funnels that are open to the overlying corona, is presented. A numerical study of the effects of Alfvén waves on the heating and acceleration of the nascent solar wind originating in the chromospheric network is carried out within the framework of a two-fluid model for the plasma. It is shown that waves with reasonable amplitudes can, through their pressure gradient together with the thermal pressure gradient, cause a substantial initial acceleration of the wind (on scales of a few Mm) to locally supersonic flows in the rapidly expanding magnetic field `trunks' of the transition region network. The concurrent proton heating is due to the energy supplied by cyclotron damping of the high-frequency Alfvén waves, which are assumed to be created through small-scale magnetic activity. The wave energy flux of the model is given as a condition at the upper chromosphere boundary, located above the thin layer where the first ionization of hydrogen takes place.
- Publication:
-
Solar Physics
- Pub Date:
- November 1997
- DOI:
- 10.1023/A:1004975703854
- Bibcode:
- 1997SoPh..176...87M
- Keywords:
-
- Supersonic Flow;
- Flux Tube;
- Mean Amplitude;
- Coronal Heating;
- Initial Acceleration