Subscribe to the gold package and get unlimited access to Shamra Academy
Register a new userTwo-fluid numerical simulations of solar spicules
77
0
0.0
(
0
)
Added by
B{\\l}a\\.zej Ku\\'zma
Publication date
2017
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
Ask ChatGPT about the research
No Arabic abstract
We aim to study the formation and evolution of solar spicules by means of numerical simulations of the solar atmosphere. With the use of newly developed JOANNA code, we numerically solve two-fluid (for ions + electrons and neutrals) equations in 2D Cartesian geometry. We follow the evolution of a spicule triggered by the time-dependent signal in ion and neutral components of gas pressure launched in the upper chromosphere. We use the potential magnetic field, which evolves self-consistently, but mainly plays a passive role in the dynamics. Our numerical results reveal that the signal is steepened into a shock that propagates upward into the corona. The chromospheric cold and dense plasma lags behind this shock and rises into the corona with a mean speed of 20-25 km s$^{-1}$. The formed spicule exhibits the upflow/downfall of plasma during its total lifetime of around 3-4 minutes, and it follows the typical characteristics of a classical spicule, which is modeled by magnetohydrodynamics. The simulated spicule consists of a dense and cold core that is dominated by neutrals. The general dynamics of ion and neutral spicules are very similar to each other. Minor differences in those dynamics result in different widths of both spicules with increasing rarefaction of the ion spicule in time.
rate research
Read More
Solar chromosphere consists of a partially ionized plasma, which makes modeling the solar chromosphere a particularly challenging numerical task. Here we numerically model chromospheric waves using a two-fluid approach with a newly developed numerical code. The code solves two-fluid equations of conservation of mass, momentum and energy, together with the induction equation, for the case of the purely hydrogen plasma with collisional coupling between the charged and neutral fluid components. The implementation of a semi-implicit algorithm allows us to overcome the numerical stability constraints due to the stiff collisional terms. We test the code against analytical solutions of acoustic and Alfven wave propagation in uniform medium in several regimes of collisional coupling.The results of our simulations are consistent with the analytical estimates, and with other results described in the literature. In the limit of a large collisional frequency, the waves propagate with a common speed of a single fluid. In the other limit of a vanishingly small collisional frequency, the Alfven waves propagate with an Alfven speed of the charged fluid only, while the perturbation in neutral fluid is very small. The acoustic waves in these limits propagate with the sound speed corresponding to either the charges or the neutrals, while the perturbation in the other fluid component is very small. Otherwise, when the collision frequency is similar to the real part of the wave frequency, the interaction between charges and neutrals through momentum transfer collisions cause alterations of the waves frequencies and damping of the wave amplitudes.
Determining the magnetic field of solar spicules is vital for developing adequate models of these plasma jets, which are thought to play a key role in the thermal, dynamic, and magnetic structure of the chromosphere. Here we report on magnetic spicule properties in a very quiet region of the off-limb solar atmosphere, as inferred from new spectropolarimetric observations in the HeI 10830 A triplet. We have used a novel inversion code for Stokes profiles caused by the joint action of atomic level polarization and the Hanle and Zeeman effects (HAZEL) to interpret the observations. Magnetic fields as strong as 40G were unambiguously detected in a very localized area of the slit, which may represent a possible lower value of the field strength of organized network spicules.
We present two-dimensional simulations of wave propagation in a realistic, non-stationary model of the solar atmosphere. This model shows a granular velocity field and magnetic flux concentrations in the intergranular lanes similar to observed velocity and magnetic structures on the Sun and takes radiative transfer into account. We present three cases of magneto-acoustic wave propagation through the model atmosphere, where we focus on the interaction of different magneto-acoustic wave at the layer of similar sound and Alfven speeds, which we call the equipartition layer. At this layer the acoustic and magnetic mode can exchange energy depending on the angle between the wave vector and the magnetic field vector. Our results show that above the equipartition layer and in all three cases the fast magnetic mode is refracted back into the solar atmosphere. Thus, the magnetic wave shows an evanescent behavior in the chromosphere. The acoustic mode, which travels along the magnetic field in the low plasma-$beta$ regime, can be a direct consequence of an acoustic source within or outside the low-$beta$ regime, or it can result from conversion of the magnetic mode, possibly from several such
In this work, we explore the dynamical impacts and observable signatures of two-fluid effects in the parameter regimes when ion-neutral collisions do not fully couple the neutral and charged fluids. The purpose of this study is to deepen our understanding of the RTI and the effects of the partial ionization on the development of RTI using non-linear two-fluid numerical simulations. Our two-fluid model takes into account neutral viscosity, thermal conductivity, and collisional interaction between neutrals and charges: ionization/recombination, energy and momentum transfer, and frictional heating. In this paper II, the sensitivity of the RTI dynamics to collisional effects for different magnetic field configurations supporting the prominence thread is explored. This is done by artificially varying, or eliminating, effects of both elastic and inelastic collisions by modifying the model equations. We find that ionization and recombination reactions between ionized and neutral fluids, if in equilibrium prior to the onset of the instability, do not substantially impact the development of the primary RTI. However, such reactions can impact development of secondary structures during mixing of the cold prominence and hotter surrounding coronal material. We find that collisionality within and between ionized and neutral particle populations play an important role in both linear and non-linear development of RTI, with ion-neutral collision frequency as the primary determining factor in development or damping of small scale structures. We also observe that degree and signatures of flow decoupling between ion and neutral fluids can depend both on the inter-particle collisionality and the magnetic field configuration of the prominence thread.
Hydrodynamic jets are unstable to the kink instability (m=1 mode in cylindrical geometry) owing to the centripetal force, which increases the transverse displacement of the jet. When the jet moves along a magnetic field, then the Lorentz force tries to decrease the displacement and stabilises the instability of sub-Alfvenic flows. The threshold of the instability depends on the Alfven Mach number (the ratio of Alfven and jet speeds). We suggest that the dynamic kink instability may be of importance to explain observed transverse motions of type II spicules in the solar atmosphere. We show that the instability may start for spicules which rise up at the peripheries of vertically expanding magnetic flux tubes owing to the decrease of the Alfven speed in both, the vertical and the radial directions. Therefore, inclined spicules may be more unstable and have more higher transverse speeds. Periods and growth times of unstable modes in the conditions of type II spicules have the values of 30 s and 25-100 s, respectively, which are comparable to the life time of the structures. This may indicate to the interconnection between high speed flow and rapid disappearance of type II spicules in chromospheric spectral lines.
Log in to be able to interact and post comments
comments
Fetching comments
Sign in to be able to follow your search criteria
