THE ROLE OF MHD WAVES IN HEATING OF THE SOLAR CORONA

Abstract

Observations in the Solar North Polar Coronal Hole (NPCH) show that this region has high temperature values (10^6-10^8 K). At this temperature, the coronal plasma loses energy to the transition region below through heat conduction and optically thin emission. It is still a matter of debate how to replace this lost energy in the solar corona and how to maintain the observed temperature values. In this study, we aimed to study the wave theory, which is an important model proposed for the heating problem of the solar corona in NPCH. We assumed a model based on Alfvén/ion cyclotron resonance process with O VI ions by using quasi-linear approximation in NPCH and solve the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations for O VI assuming that the non-thermal contribution to the temperature. Using a Matlab code, we performed 3D MHD numerical solutions of Alfvén waves. Our results show that the damping length scales (0.2-1.8 R) and energy flux densities (10^5-10^7 erg/cm^2 s) of Alfvén waves are similar for both plumes and interplumes in NPCH. As a result of our study, we present the contribution of MHD waves that will cause the acceleration of the solar wind and the heating of the solar corona.

Keywords

• Solar corona
• MHD
• Alfven waves
• Solar wind

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