Abstract
Internal gravity waves (IGWs) are buoyancy-driven waves common in the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. IGWs have also been observed in the Sun’s atmosphere and are thought to play an important role in the overall dynamics of the solar atmosphere. They supply bulk of the wave energy for the lower solar atmosphere, but their existence and role in the energy balance of the upper layer remains unclear. Using radiation-magnetohydrodynamic (R-MHD) simulations, we study naturally excited IGWs in realistic models of the solar atmosphere. In this talk, we discuss some of our recent results on the influence of the Sun’s magnetic field on the propagation of IGWs and their energy transport. Our analysis suggests that the IGWs are generated independent of the mean magnetic property of the atmosphere. However, their propagation into higher layers is strongly affected by the presence and the topology of the magnetic field. We discuss how IGWs may play a significant role in the heating of the chromospheric layers in regions where horizontal fields are thought to be prevalent, like the internetwork region.
Recorded video
https://science-media.org/video/321