No Arabic abstract
We report on turbulent dynamo simulations in a spherical wedge with an outer coronal layer. We apply a two-layer model where the lower layer represents the convection zone and the upper layer the solar corona. This setup is used to study the coronal influence on the dynamo action beneath the surface. Increasing the radial coronal extent gradually to three times the solar radius and changing the magnetic Reynolds number, we find that dynamo action benefits from the additional coronal extent in terms of higher magnetic energy in the saturated stage. The flux of magnetic helicity can play an important role in this context.
The issue of the influence of coronal holes (CHs) on coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in causing solar energetic particle (SEP) events is revisited. It is a continuation and extension of our previous work (Shen et al., 2006), in which no evident effect of CHs on CMEs in generating SEPs were found by statistically investigating 56 CME events. This result is consistent with the conclusion obtained by Kahler in 2004. In this paper, we extrapolate the coronal magnetic field, define CHs as the regions consisting of only open magnetic field lines and perform a similar analysis on this issue for totally 76 events by extending the study interval to the end of 2008. Three key parameters, CH proximity, CH area and CH relative position, are involved in the analysis. The new result confirms the previous conclusion that CHs did not show any evident effect on CMEs in causing SEP events.
By comparing a magneto-frictional model of the low coronal magnetic field to a potential-field source-surface model, we investigate the possible impact of non-potential magnetic structure on empirical solar-wind models. These empirical models (such as Wang-Sheeley-Arge) estimate the distribution of solar-wind speed solely from the magnetic-field structure in the low corona. Our models are computed in a domain between the solar surface and 2.5 solar radii, and are extended to 0.1 AU using a Schatten current-sheet model. The non-potential field has a more complex magnetic skeleton and quasi-separatrix structures than the potential field, leading to different sub-structure in the solar-wind speed proxies. It contains twisted magnetic structures that can perturb the separatrix surfaces traced down from the base of the heliospheric current sheet. A significant difference between the models is the greater amount of open magnetic flux in the non-potential model. Using existing empirical formulae this leads to higher predicted wind speeds for two reasons: partly because magnetic flux tubes expand less rapidly with height, but more importantly because more open field lines are further from coronal-hole boundaries.
The thermal evolution of rocky planets on geological timescales (Gyr) depends on the heat input from the long-lived radiogenic elements potassium, thorium, and uranium. Concentrations of the latter two in rocky planet mantles are likely to vary by up to an order of magnitude between different planetary systems because Th and U, like other heavy r-process elements, are produced by rare stellar processes. Here we discuss the effects of these variations on the thermal evolution of an Earth-size planet, using a 1D parameterized convection model. Assuming Th and U abundances consistent with geochemical models of the Bulk Silicate Earth based on chondritic meteorites, we find that Earth had just enough radiogenic heating to maintain a persistent dynamo. According to this model, Earth-like planets of stars with higher abundances of heavy r-process elements, indicated by the relative abundance of europium in their spectra, are likely to have lacked a dynamo for a significant fraction of their lifetimes, with potentially negative consequences for hosting a biosphere. Because the qualitative outcomes of our 1D model are strongly dependent on the treatment of viscosity, further investigations using fully 3D convection models are desirable.
The effect of the numerical spatial resolution in models of the solar corona and corona / chromosphere interface is examined for impulsive heating over a range of magnitudes using one dimensional hydrodynamic simulations. It is demonstrated that the principle effect of inadequate resolution is on the coronal density. An underresolved loop typically has a peak density of at least a factor of two lower than a resolved loop subject to the same heating, with larger discrepencies in the decay phase. The temperature for under-resolved loops is also lower indicating that lack of resolution does not bottle up the heat flux in the corona. Energy is conserved in the models to under 1% in all cases, indicating that this is not responsible for the low density. Instead, we argue that in under-resolved loops the heat flux jumps across the transition region to the dense chromosphere from which it is radiated rather than heating and ablating transition region plasma. This emphasises the point that the interaction between corona and chromosphere occurs only through the medium of the transition region. Implications for three dimensional magnetohydrodynamic coronal models are discussed.
Magnetic helicity fluxes in turbulently driven alpha^2 dynamos are studied to demonstrate their ability to alleviate catastrophic quenching. A one-dimensional mean-field formalism is used to achieve magnetic Reynolds numbers of the order of 10^5. We study both diffusive magnetic helicity fluxes through the mid-plane as well as those resulting from the recently proposed alternate dynamic quenching formalism. By adding shear we make a parameter scan for the critical values of the shear and forcing parameters for which dynamo action occurs. For this $alphaOmega$ dynamo we find that the preferred mode is antisymmetric about the mid-plane. This is also verified in 3-D direct numerical simulations.