Catastrophic cooling in solar coronal loops [Elektronische Ressource] : thermal instability as a road to complex evolution / Daniel Müller

Sujets

• Astronomie

Informations

• Publié par: albert-ludwigs-universitat_freiburg
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2005
• Nombre de lectures: 4
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 19 Mo

Extrait

Catastrophic Cooling in Solar Coronal Loops
Thermal Instability as a Road to Complex Evolution
Daniel Muller¨The cover illustration shows space-time plots of the modeled temperature distribution along a
magnetic loop in the solar corona. The damping length, H , of the energy dissipation in them
loop controls the onset of thermal instabilities. Regions of cool, dense plasma result from these
catastrophic cooling events and propagate towards the footpoints of the loop, seen as dark lanes
in the temperature plots. The left and right footpoints of the loop are located atz = 0 Mm and
z = 100 Mm, respectively.Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Fakultat¨ fur¨ Mathematik
und Physik der Albert-Ludwigs-Universitat¨
Freiburg im Breisgau
Catastrophic Cooling in Solar Coronal
Loops
Thermal Instability as a Road to Complex Evolution
Daniel Muller¨
Kiepenheuer Institute for Solar Physics, Freiburg &
Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, Oslo
October 2004Dekan: Prof. Dr. J. Honerkamp
Referent: PD Dr. H. Peter
Korreferent: Prof. Dr. V. H. Hansteen
Datum der mundlichen¨ Prufung:¨ 20.12.2004In the context of this thesis the following articles have been/will be published:
Papers in Refereed Journals
I. D.A.N. Muller¨ , V.H. Hansteen & H. Peter,
Dynamics of Solar Coronal Loops:
I. Condensation in Cool Loops and its Effect on Transition Region Lines,
Astronomy & Astrophysics 411, 605–613 (2003)
II. D.A.N. Muller¨ , H. Peter & V.H. Hansteen
Dynamics of Solar Coronal Loops:
II. Catastrophic Cooling and High-Speed Downflows,
Astronomy & Astrophysics 424, 289–300, (2004)
III. D.A.N. Muller¨ , A. De Groof, V.H. Hansteen & H. Peter,
High-Speed Coronal Rain
Astronomy & Astrophysics, submitted (2004)
IV. D.A.N. Muller¨ , H. Peter & V.H. Hansteen,
Coronal Loops out of Equilibrium: Paths Towards Instability
Astronomy & Astrophysics, in preparation (2004)
Conference Proceedings
I. D.A.N. Muller¨ , H. Peter & V.H. Hansteen,
Condensation in Cool Coronal Loops and its Effect on Transition Region Lines,
Astronomische Nachrichten 324/3, 108 (2003)
II. D.A.N. Muller¨ , V.H. Hansteen & H. Peter,
Dynamics of Coronal Loops: “Catastrophic Cooling” and High-Speed Downflows,
Astronomische Nachrichten 324/3, 13 (2003)
III. D.A.N. Muller¨ , V.H. Hansteen & H. Peter,
Plasma Condensation in Coronal Loops: I. Basic Processes,
in: Proceedings of the SOHO-13 Workshop, ESA SP-547, 285–290 (2004)
IV. D.A.N. Muller¨ , H. Peter & V.H. Hansteen,
Plasma Condensation in Coronal Loops: II. “Catastrophic Cooling” and High-Speed Down-
flows, in: Proceedings of the SOHO-13 Workshop, ESA SP-547, 199–204 (2004)
V. D.A.N. Muller¨ , H. Peter & V.H. Hansteen,
Catastrophic Cooling and High-Speed Downflows in Solar Coronal Loops,
in: Stars as Suns: Activity, Evolution and Planets, Eds. A.K. Dupree & A.O. Benz, Astr.
Soc. Pacific, ASP, ISBN 1-58381-163-X (2004)VI. A. De Groof, D.A.N. Muller¨ , D. Berghmans, & S. Poedts,
Downflows of Cool Plasma in Coronal Loops: Observations and Modeling
in: Physicalia Magazine, in press (2004)
VII. D.A.N. Muller¨ , A. De Groof, V.H. Hansteen & H. Peter,
Thermal Non-Equilibrium in Coronal Loops: A Road to Complex Evolution,
in: Multi-Wavelength Investigations of Solar Activity, Eds. A.V. Stepanov,
E.E. Benevolenskaya, A.G. Kosovichev, Cambridge University Press, in press (2005)
VIII. A. De Groof, D.A.N. Muller¨ , D. Berghmans, & S. Poedts,
Downflows of Cool Plasma in Coronal Loops: Observations and Modeling
in: Multi-Wavelength Investigations of Solar Activity, Eds. A.V. Stepanov,
E.E. Benevolenskaya, A.G. Kosovichev, Cambridge University Press, in press (2005)
IX. D.A.N. Muller¨ , A. De Groof, V.H. Hansteen & H. Peter,
Thermal Instability as the Origin of High-Speed Coronal Rain,
in: Proceedings of the SOHO-15 Workshop, ESA SP-575, in press (2005)Contents
Abstract 1
1 Introduction 5
1.1 The Solar Atmosphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.1.1 The Radiative Core and the Convection Zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.1.2 The Photosphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.1.3 The Chromosphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.1.4 The Transition Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.1.5 The Corona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.1.6 The Solar Wind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.2 Magnetic Loops in the Solar Corona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.2.1 Theoretical Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.2.2 Observations of Coronal Loops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.2.3 Loop Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.3 Motivation and Scope of this Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2 Model Equations and their Solution 19
2.1 Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.2 Implicit Integration Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.2.1 Implicit Integration of First-Order Partial Differential Equations . . . . . 20
2.3 Conservative Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.4 Upwind Schemes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.5 Staggered Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.6 Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.7 Conservation Laws on an Adaptive Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.7.1 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.8 Implementation of an Adaptive Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.9 Solving the Model Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3 Emission Line Spectroscopy 33
3.1 Atomic Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.1.1 Important Atomic Processes in the Transition Region and Corona . . . . 34
3.2 Formation of Optically-Thin Emission Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.2.1 Excitation and Deexcitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.2.2 The Two-Level Atom Approximation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.2.3 Ionization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39vi Contents
3.2.4 Atomic Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.2.5 The Spectral Line Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4 Plasma Condensation in Cool Loops and its Effect on Transition Region Lines 41
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.2 Loop Heating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.3 Results: Condensation due to Thermal Instability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.3.1 Initial State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.3.2 Loop Evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.3.3 Energy Balance Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.3.4 The Role of the Damping Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.3.5 Limit Cycle of Loop Evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.3.6 Remarks on Rayleigh-Taylor Instability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.3.7 Spectral Signature of Condensation in Transition Region Lines . . . . . . 53
4.4 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
5 Catastrophic Cooling and High-Speed Downflows 57
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
5.1.1 Loop Heating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
5.1.2 Initial State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
5.2 Plasma Condensation due to Thermal Instability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.3 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5.3.1 Different Types of Loop Evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5.3.2 Classification of Loop Evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.3.3 Where in a Coronal Loop do Condensation Regions Form? . . . . . . . . 65
5.3.4 Formation of a Shock Front . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
5.3.5 Velocity Profiles and Acceleration of the Condensation Region . . . . . . 68
5.3.6 Spectral Signature of Catastrophic Cooling and Downflows . . . . . . . . 71
5.4 Comparison to Observations and Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
5.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
6 High-Speed Coronal Rain 79
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
6.1.1 Loop Heating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
6.1.2 Initial State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
6.2 Effect of the Damping Length on the Loop Evolut