The Role of Partial Ionization Effects in the Chromosphere

The energy for the coronal heating must be provided from the convection zone. The amount and the method by which this energy is transferred into the corona depends on the properties of the lower atmosphere and the corona itself. We review: 1) how the energy could be built in the lower solar atmosphere; 2) how this energy is transferred through the solar atmosphere; and 3) how the energy is finally dissipated in the chromosphere and/or corona. Any mechanism of energy transport has to deal with the various physical processes in the lower atmosphere. We will focus on a physical process that seems to be highly important in the chromosphere and not deeply studied until recently: the ion-neutral interaction effects (INIE) in the chromosphere. We review the relevance and the role of the partial ionization in the chromosphere and show that this process actually impacts considerably the outer solar atmosphere. We include analysis of our 2.5D radiative MHD simulations with the Bifrost code (Gudiksen et al. 2011) including the partial ionization effects on the chromosphere and corona and thermal conduction along magnetic field lines. The photosphere, chromosphere and transition region are partially ionized and the interaction between ionized particles and neutral particles has important consequences on the magneto-thermodynamics of these layers. The INIE are treated using generalized Ohms law, i.e., we consider the Hall term and the ambipolar diffusion in the induction equation. The interaction between the different species affects the modeled atmosphere as follows: 1) the ambipolar diffusion dissipates magnetic energy and increases the minimum temperature in the chromosphere; 2) the upper chromosphere may get heated and expanded over a greater range of heights. These processes reveal appreciable differences between the modeled atmospheres of simulations with and without INIE.

Internetwork chromospheric bright grains observed with IRIS

The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) reveals small-scale rapid brightenings in the form of bright grains all over coronal holes and the quiet sun. These bright grains are seen with the IRIS 1330 AA, 1400 AA and 2796 AA slit-jaw filters. We combine coordinated observations with IRIS and from the ground with the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope (SST) which allows us to have chromospheric (Ca II 8542 AA, Ca II H 3968 AA, Halpha, and Mg II k 2796 AA), and transition region (C II 1334 AA, Si IV 1402) spectral imaging, and single-wavelength Stokes maps in Fe I 6302 AA at high spatial (0.33), temporal and spectral resolution. We conclude that the IRIS slit-jaw grains are the counterpart of so-called acoustic grains, i.e., resulting from chromospheric acoustic waves in a non-magnetic environment. We compare slit-jaw images with spectra from the IRIS spectrograph. We conclude that the grain intensity in the 2796 AA slit-jaw filter comes from both the Mg II k core and wings. The signal in the C II and Si IV lines is too weak to explain the presence of grains in the 1300 and 1400 AA slit-jaw images and we conclude that the grain signal in these passbands comes mostly from the continuum. Even though weak, the characteristic shock signatures of acoustic grains can often be detected in IRIS C II spectra. For some grains, spectral signature can be found in IRIS Si IV. This suggests that upward propagating acoustic waves sometimes reach all the way up to the transition region.

Observing coronal nanoflares in active region moss

The High-resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) has provided Fe XII 193A images of the upper transition region moss at an unprecedented spatial (~0.3-0.4 arcsec) and temporal (5.5s) resolution. The Hi-C observations show in some moss regions variability on timescales down to ~15s, significantly shorter than the minute scale variability typically found in previous observations of moss, therefore challenging the conclusion of moss being heated in a mostly steady manner. These rapid variability moss regions are located at the footpoints of bright hot coronal loops observed by SDO/AIA in the 94A channel, and by Hinode/XRT. The configuration of these loops is highly dynamic, and suggestive of slipping reconnection. We interpret these events as signatures of heating events associated with reconnection occurring in the overlying hot coronal loops, i.e., coronal nanoflares. We estimate the order of magnitude of the energy in these events to be of at least a few $10^{23}rg, also supporting the nanoflare scenario. These Hi-C observations suggest that future observations at comparable high spatial and temporal resolution, with more extensive temperature coverage are required to determine the exact characteristics of the heating mechanism(s).

Investigating the reliability of coronal emission measure distribution diagnostics using 3D radiative MHD simulations

Determining the temperature distribution of coronal plasmas can provide stringent constraints on coronal heating. Current observations with the Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph onboard Hinode and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory provide diagnostics of the emission measure distribution (EMD) of the coronal plasma. Here we test the reliability of temperature diagnostics using 3D radiative MHD simulations. We produce synthetic observables from the models, and apply the Monte Carlo Markov chain EMD diagnostic. By comparing the derived EMDs with the true distributions from the model we assess the limitations of the diagnostics, as a function of the plasma parameters and of the signal-to-noise of the data. We find that EMDs derived from EIS synthetic data reproduce some general characteristics of the true distributions, but usually show differences from the true EMDs that are much larger than the estimated uncertainties suggest, especially when structures with significantly different density overlap along the line-of-sight. When using AIA synthetic data the derived EMDs reproduce the true EMDs much less accurately, especially for broad EMDs. The differences between the two instruments are due to the: (1) smaller number of constraints provided by AIA data, (2) broad temperature response function of the AIA channels which provide looser constraints to the temperature distribution. Our results suggest that EMDs derived from current observatories may often show significant discrepancies from the true EMDs, rendering their interpretation fraught with uncertainty. These inherent limitations to the method should be carefully considered when using these distributions to constrain coronal heating.

Twisted flux tube emergence from the convection zone to the corona

3D numerical simulations of a horizontal magnetic flux tube emergence with different twist are carried out in a computational domain spanning the upper layers of the convection zone to the lower corona. We use the Oslo Staggered Code to solve the full MHD equations with non-grey and non-LTE radiative transfer and thermal conduction along the magnetic field lines. The emergence of the magnetic flux tube input at the bottom boundary into a weakly magnetized atmosphere is presented. The photospheric and chromospheric response is described with magnetograms, synthetic images and velocity field distributions. The emergence of a magnetic flux tube into such an atmosphere results in varied atmospheric responses. In the photosphere the granular size increases when the flux tube approaches from below. In the convective overshoot region some 200km above the photosphere adiabatic expansion produces cooling, darker regions with the structure of granulation cells. We also find collapsed granulation in the boundaries of the rising flux tube. Once the flux tube has crossed the photosphere, bright points related with concentrated magnetic field, vorticity, high vertical velocities and heating by compressed material are found at heights up to 500km above the photosphere. At greater heights in the magnetized chromosphere, the rising flux tube produces a cool, magnetized bubble that tends to expel the usual chromospheric oscillations. In addition the rising flux tube dramatically increases the chromospheric scale height, pushing the transition region and corona aside such that the chromosphere extends up to 6Mm above the photosphere. The emergence of magnetic flux tubes through the photosphere to the lower corona is a relatively slow process, taking of order 1 hour.