The existence of the Sun’s hot atmosphere and the solar wind acceleration continues to be an outstanding problem in solar-astrophysics. Although magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) modes and dissipation of magnetic energy contribute to heating and the mass cycle of the solar atmosphere, yet direct evidence of such processes often generates debate. Ground-based 1-m Swedish Solar Telescope (SST)/CRISP, Hα 6562.8 Å observations reveal, for the first time, the ubiquitous presence of high frequency (~12–42 mHz) torsional motions in thin spicular-type structures in the chromosphere. We detect numerous oscillating flux tubes on 10 June 2014 between 07:17 UT to 08:08 UT in a quiet-Sun field-of-view of 60” × 60” (1” = 725 km). Stringent numerical model shows that these observations resemble torsional Alfvén waves associated with high frequency drivers which contain a huge amount of energy (~105 W m−2) in the chromosphere. Even after partial reflection from the transition region, a significant amount of energy (~103 W m−2) is transferred onto the overlying corona. We find that oscillating tubes serve as substantial sources of Alfvén wave generation that provide sufficient Poynting flux not only to heat the corona but also to originate the supersonic solar wind.
Using high-resolution numerical simulations we investigate the plasma heating driven by periodic two-fluid acoustic waves that originate at the bottom of the photosphere and propagate into the gravitationally stratified and partially ionized solar atmosphere. We consider ions+electrons and neutrals as separate fluids that interact between themselves via collision forces. The latter play an important role in the chromosphere, leading to significant damping of short-period waves. Long-period waves do not essentially alter the photospheric temperatures, but they exhibit the capability of depositing a part of their energy in the chromosphere.This results in up about a five times increase of ion temperature that takes place there on a time-scale of a few minutes. The most effective heating corresponds to waveperiods within the range of about 30-200 s with a peak value located at 80 s. However, we conclude that for the amplitude of the driver chosen to be equal to 0.1 km s −1 , this heating is too low to balance the radiative losses in the chromosphere.
Context. We investigate the wave heating problem of a solar quiet region and present its plausible solution without involving shock formation.
Aims. We aim to use numerical simulations to study wave propagation and dissipation in the partially ionized solar atmosphere, whose model includes both neutrals and ions.
Methods. We used a 2.5D two-fluid model of the solar atmosphere to study the wave generation and propagation. The source of these waves is the solar convection located beneath the photosphere.
Results. The energy carried by the waves is dissipated through ion-neutral collisions, which replace shocks used in some previous studies as the main source of local heating in quiet regions.
Conclusions. We show that the resulting wave dissipation is sufficient to balance radiative and thermal energy losses, and to sustain a quasi-stationary atmosphere whose averaged temperature profile agrees well with the observationally based semi-empirical model of Avrett & Loeser (2008, ApJS, 175, 229).
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.