EFFECT OF HORIZONTALLY INHOMOGENEOUS HEATING ON FLOW AND MAGNETIC FIELD IN THE CHROMOSPHERE OF THE SUN

Abstract

The solar chromosphere is heated by damped Alfven waves propagating upward from the photosphere at a rate that depends on magnetic field strength, producing enhanced heating at low altitudes in the extended weak-field regions (where the additional heating accounts for the radiative losses) between the boundaries of the chromospheric network as well as enhanced heating per particle at higher altitudes in strong magnetic field regions of the network. The resulting inhomogeneous radiation and temperature distribution produces bulk flows, which in turn affect the configuration of the magnetic field. The basic flow pattern is circulation on the spatial scale of a supergranule, with upward flow in the strong-field region; this is a mirror image in the upper chromosphere of photospheric/subphotospheric convection widely associated with the formation of the strong network field. There are significant differences between the neutral and the ionized components of the weakly ionized medium: neutral flow streamlines can form closed cells, whereas plasma is largely constrained to flow along the magnetic field. Stresses associated with this differential flow may explain why the canopy/funnel structures of the network magnetic field have a greater horizontal extent and are relatively more homogeneous at high altitudes than is expected from simple current-freemore » models.« less