Creation of current filaments in the solar corona

view Abstract Citations (147) References (17) Co-Reads Similar Papers Volume Content Graphics Metrics Export Citation NASA/ADS Creation of Current Filaments in the Solar Corona Mikic, Z. ; Schnack, D. D. ; van Hoven, G. Abstract It has been suggested that the solar corona is heated by the dissipation of electric currents. The low value of the resistivity requires the magnetic field to have structure at very small length scales if this mechanism is to work. In this paper it is demonstrated that the coronal magnetic field acquires small-scale structure through the braiding produced by smooth, randomly phased, photospheric flows. The current density develops a filamentary structure and grows exponentially in time. Nonlinear processes in the ideal magnetohydrodynamic equations produce a cascade effect, in which the structure introduced by the flow at large length scales is transferred to smaller scales. If this process continues down to the resistive dissipation length scale, it would provide an effective mechanism for coronal heating. Publication: The Astrophysical Journal Pub Date: March 1989 DOI: 10.1086/167265 Bibcode: 1989ApJ...338.1148M Keywords: Electric Current; Solar Corona; Solar Prominences; Current Density; Field Strength; Flow Distribution; Magnetohydrodynamics; Photosphere; Solar Magnetic Field; Solar Physics; HYDROMAGNETICS; SUN: CORONA full text sources ADS |