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Register a new userActive region upflows: 2. Data driven MHD modeling
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Added by
Kamalam Vanninathan
Publication date
2015
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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Context. Observations of many active regions show a slow systematic outflow/upflow from their edges lasting from hours to days. At present no physical explanation has been proven, while several suggestions have been put forward. Aims. This paper investigates one possible method for maintaining these upflows assuming that convective motions drive the magnetic field to initiate them through magnetic reconnection. Methods. We use Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) data to provide an initial potential three dimensional magnetic field of the active region NOAA 11123 on 2010 November 13 where the characteristic upflow velocities are observed. A simple one-dimensional hydrostatic atmospheric model covering the region from the photosphere to the corona is derived. Local Correlation Tracking of the magnetic features in the HMI data is used to derive a proxy for the time dependent velocity field. The time dependent evolution of the system is solved using a resistive three-dimensional MagnetoHydro-Dynamic code. Results. The magnetic field contains several null points located well above the photosphere, with their fan planes dividing the magnetic field into independent open and closed flux domains. The stressing of the interfaces between the different flux domains is expected to provide locations where magnetic reconnection can take place and drive systematic flows. In this case, the region between the closed and open flux is identified as the region where observations find the systematic upflows. Conclusions. In the present experiment, the driving only initiates magneto-acoustic waves, without driving any systematic upflows at any of the flux interfaces.
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Upflows at the edges of active regions (ARs) are studied by spatially and temporally combining multi-instrument observations obtained with EIS/Hinode, AIA and HMI/SDO and IBIS/NSO, to derive their plasma parameters. This information is used for benchmarking data-driven modelling of the upflows (Galsgaard et al., 2015). The studied AR upflow displays blueshifted emission of 5-20 km/s in Fe XII and Fe XIII and its average electron density is 1.8x10^9 cm^3 at 1 MK. The time variation of the density shows no significant change (in a 3sigma error). The plasma density along a single loop drops by 50% over a distance of 20000 km. We find a second velocity component in the blue wing of the Fe XII and Fe XIII lines at 105 km/s. This component is persistent during the whole observing period of 3.5 hours with variations of only 15 km/s. We also study the evolution of the photospheric magnetic field and find that magnetic flux diffusion is responsible for the formation of the upflow region. High cadence Halpha observations of the chromosphere at the footpoints of the upflow region show no significant jet-like (spicule/rapid blue excursion) activity to account for several hours/days of plasma upflow. Using an image enhancement technique, we show that the coronal structures seen in the AIA 193A channel is comparable to the EIS Fe XII images, while images in the AIA 171A channel reveals additional loops that are a result of contribution from cooler emission to this channel. Our results suggest that at chromospheric heights there are no signatures that support the possible contribution of spicules to AR upflows. We suggest that magnetic flux diffusion is responsible for the formation of the coronal upflows. The existence of two velocity components possibly indicate the presence of two different flows which are produced by two different physical mechanisms, e.g. magnetic reconnection and pressure-driven.
Persistent plasma upflows were observed with Hinodes EUV Imaging Spectrometer (EIS) at the edges of active region (AR) 10978 as it crossed the solar disk. We analyze the evolution of the photospheric magnetic and velocity fields of the AR, model its coronal magnetic field, and compute the location of magnetic null-points and quasi-sepratrix layers (QSLs) searching for the origin of EIS upflows. Magnetic reconnection at the computed null points cannot explain all of the observed EIS upflow regions. However, EIS upflows and QSLs are found to evolve in parallel, both temporarily and spatially. Sections of two sets of QSLs, called outer and inner, are found associated to EIS upflow streams having different characteristics. The reconnection process in the outer QSLs is forced by a large-scale photospheric flow pattern which is present in the AR for several days. We propose a scenario in which upflows are observed provided a large enough asymmetry in plasma pressure exists between the pre-reconnection loops and for as long as a photospheric forcing is at work. A similar mechanism operates in the inner QSLs, in this case, it is forced by the emergence and evolution of the bipoles between the two main AR polarities. Our findings provide strong support to the results from previous individual case studies investigating the role of magnetic reconnection at QSLs as the origin of the upflowing plasma. Furthermore, we propose that persistent reconnection along QSLs does not only drive the EIS upflows, but it is also responsible for a continuous metric radio noise-storm observed in AR 10978 along its disk transit by the Nanc{c}ay Radio Heliograph.
Solar eruptions are the most powerful drivers of space weather. To understand their cause and nature, it is crucial to know how the coronal magnetic field evolves before eruption. Here we study the formation process of a relatively large-scale magnetic flux rope (MFR) in active region NOAA~12371 that erupts with a major flare and coronal mass ejection on 2015 June 21. A data-driven numerical magnetohydrodynamic model is employed to simulate three-dimensional coronal magnetic field evolution of one-day duration before the eruption. Comparison between the observed features and our modeled magnetic field discloses how the pre-eruption MFR forms. Initially, the magnetic field lines were weakly twisted as being simple sheared arcades. Then a long MFR was formed along the polarity inversion line due to the complex photospheric motion, which is mainly shearing rather than twisting. The presence of the MFR is evidenced by a coherent set of magnetic field lines with twist number above unity. Below the MFR a current sheet is shown in the model, suggesting that tether-cutting reconnection plays a key role in the MFR formation. The MFRs flux grows as more and more field lines are twisted due to continuous injection of magnetic helicity by the photospheric motions. Meanwhile, the height of the MFRs axis increases monotonely from its formation. By an analysis of the decay index of its overlying field, we suggest that it is because the MFR runs into the torus instability regime and becomes unstable that finally triggers the eruption.
We present a study of the temporal evolution of coronal loops in active regions and its implications for the dynamics in coronal loops. We analyzed images of the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) at multiple temperatures to detect apparent motions in the coronal loops. Quasi-periodic brightness fluctuations propagate upwards from the loop footpoint in hot emission at 1MK, while sporadic downflows are seen in cool emission below 1MK. The upward motion in hot emission increases just after the cool downflows. The apparent propagating pattern suggests a hot upflow from the loop footpoints, and is considered to supply hot plasma into the coronal loop, but a wavelike phenomenon cannot be ruled out. Coronal condensation occasionally happens in the coronal loop, and the cool material flows down to the footpoint. Emission from cool plasma could have a significant contribution to hot AIA channels in the event of coronal condensation.
It is well known that magnetic fields dominate the dynamics in the solar corona, and new generation of numerical modelling of the evolution of coronal magnetic fields, as featured with boundary conditions driven directly by observation data, are being developed. This paper describes a new approach of data-driven magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation of solar active region (AR) magnetic field evolution, which is for the first time that a data-driven full-MHD model utilizes directly the photospheric velocity field from DAVE4VM. We constructed a well-established MHD equilibrium based on a single vector magnetogram by employing an MHD-relaxation approach with sufficiently small kinetic viscosity, and used this MHD equilibrium as the initial conditions for subsequent data-driven evolution. Then we derived the photospheric surface flows from a time series of observed magentograms based on the DAVE4VM method. The surface flows are finally inputted in time sequence to the bottom boundary of the MHD model to self-consistently update the magnetic field at every time step by solving directly the magnetic induction equation at the bottom boundary. We applied this data-driven model to study the magnetic field evolution of AR 12158 with SDO/HMI vector magnetograms. Our model reproduced a quasi-static stress of the field lines through mainly the rotational flow of the ARs leading sunspot, which makes the core field lines to form a coherent S shape consistent with the sigmoid structure as seen in the SDO/AIA images. The total magnetic energy obtained in the simulation matches closely the accumulated magnetic energy as calculated directly from the original vector magnetogram with the DAVE4VM derived flow field. Such a data-driven model will be used to study how the coronal field, as driven by the slow photospheric motions, reaches a unstable state and runs into eruptions.
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