A cellular automaton model for coronal heating

We present a simple coronal heating model based on a cellular automaton approach. Following Parker's suggestion (1988), we consider the corona to be made up of elemental magnetic strands that accumulate magnetic stress due to the photospheric displacements of their footpoints. Magnetic energy i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inProceedings of the International Astronomical Union Vol. 7; no. S286; pp. 433 - 436
Main Authors Fuentes, M. C. López, Klimchuk, J. A.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.10.2011
Subjects
Astronomy
Contributed Papers
Corona
Magnetic fields
Solar physics
Sun: activity
Sun: corona
Sun: magnetic fields
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Summary:We present a simple coronal heating model based on a cellular automaton approach. Following Parker's suggestion (1988), we consider the corona to be made up of elemental magnetic strands that accumulate magnetic stress due to the photospheric displacements of their footpoints. Magnetic energy is eventually released in small scale reconnection events. The model consists of a 2D grid in which strand footpoints travel with random displacements simulating convective motions. Each time two strands interact, a critical condition is tested (as in self-organized critical models), and if the condition is fulfilled, the strands reconnect and energy is released. We model the plasma response to the heating events and obtain synthetic observations. We compare the output of the model with real observations from Hinode/XRT and discuss the implications of our results for coronal heating.
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ISSN:1743-9213
1743-9221
DOI:10.1017/S1743921312005212