Back-reaction Of Solar plaSma to WAVES

ended

"The solar coronal heating problem is a long-standing astrophysical problem. The slow DC (reconnection) heating models are well developed in detailed 3D numerical simulations. The fast AC (wave) heating mechanisms have traditionally been neglected since there were no wave observations. Since 2007, we know that the solar atmosphere is filled with transverse waves, but still we have no adequate models (except for my own 1D analytical models) for their dissipation and plasma heating by these waves. We urgently need to know the contribution of these waves to the coronal heating problem. In BOSS-WAVES, I will innovate the AC wave heating models by utilising novel 3D numerical simulations of propagating transverse waves. From previous results in my team, I know that the inclusion of the back-reaction of the solar plasma is crucial in understanding the energy dissipation: the wave heating leads to chromospheric evaporation and plasma mixing (by the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability). BOSS-WAVES will bring the AC heating models to the same level of state-of-the-art DC heating models. The high-risk, high-gain goals are (1) to create a coronal loop heated by waves, starting from an ""empty"" corona, by evaporating chromospheric material, and (2) to pioneer models for whole active regions heated by transverse waves."