Abstract
Dissipation of magnetic waves and dissipation of electric current during magnetic reconnection (MR) are explored independently as primary candidates for the sustained heating of the solar corona. However, their symbiotic roles together for the heating and dynamics of the solar corona are not studied in greater detail. In the present study, we perturb the magnetic null in the localized corona via a wave-like velocity perturbation that results in an unbalanced Lorentz force in the vicinity of this magnetic null and subsequently collapses it to form a current sheet (CS). Due to the inhomogeneity of magnetic pressure across the CS and imbalances in the Lorentz force, it eventually gets curved and elongated simultaneously. Once the aspect ratio is high enough, the fragmentation of CS forms multiple plasmoids. An attraction due to the parallel currents within plasmoids causes their coalescence to form the bigger plasmoids. Due to the movement and coalescence of the plasmoids, the ripple-like wavefronts are generated that further propagate to larger distances in the ambient corona from the source region. In-phase relation of magnetic and plasma pressure suggests those to be the fast magnetoacoustic waves. Since, the sources themselves are moving in time, we establish the spatio-temporal correlation between waves and coalescence events on the basis of consistency between estimated arrival times of waves generated during specific coalescence events and peaks in measured wave energy fluxes (WEFs). Since, background magnetic field, pressure, density etc are time varying such as in real observed corona, we estimate instantaneous phase speeds to measure time evolution of WEFs. WEFs are found to be of the order of 105 erg.cm-2.s-1 at a distance of 60 Mm from the source regions. This energy is sufficient for heating the coronal holes and quiet-Sun, and driving the solar winds in both quiet-Sun and active regions, if it gets dissipated. We suggest that both waves and reconnection can be initiated at the expense of one another which we refer to as a “symbiosis of waves and reconnection” and this process further plays an important role in coronal heating and driving the solar wind.
Collaborators
Abhishekh Kumar Srivastava (IIT BHU), David I. Pontin (University of New Castle, Australia), Eric R. Priest (University of St. Andrews, UK), R. Y. Kwon (KASI, S. Korea), Ding Yuan (HIT, Shenzhen, China)
Recorded video
https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.28270502.v1