Space Science Reviews

Antonucci, Ester; Abbo, Lucia; Telloni, Daniele

doi: 10.1007/s11214-010-9739-7pmid: N/A

The spectroscopic observations of the Ultraviolet Coronagraph Spectrometer (UVCS), on board the SOHO observatory, allow the study and the full characterization of the expansion of the solar atmosphere by means of measurements of the outflow speeds and the physical properties of the wind, directly in the region where the solar plasma is heated and accelerated: the extended corona. During solar minimum, when the magnetic configuration of the corona is rather simple, the open magnetic fields emerging from the wide polar coronal holes channel toward the heliosphere both the fast and the slow wind. The fast wind flows along flux tubes with lower areal divergence than the slow wind which is guided by flux tubes characterized by non-monotonic areal expansion functions. Differences in the physical properties, such as kinetic temperature, electron density, composition and density fluctuations, of the fast and slow wind in the corona are discussed.

Wang, Y.-M.

doi: 10.1007/s11214-010-9733-0pmid: N/A

Coronal holes can produce several types of solar wind with a variety of compositional properties, depending on the location and strength of the heating along their open magnetic field lines. High-speed wind is associated with (relatively) slowly diverging flux tubes rooted in the interiors of large holes with weak, uniform footpoint fields; heating is spread over a large radial distance, so that most of the energy is conducted outward and goes into accelerating the wind rather than increasing the mass flux. In the rapidly diverging open fields present at coronal hole boundaries and around active regions, the heating is concentrated at low heights and the temperature maximum is located near the coronal base, resulting in high oxygen freezing-in temperatures and low asymptotic wind speeds. Polar plumes have a strong additional source of heating at their bases, which generates a large downward conductive flux, raising the densities and enhancing the radiative losses. The relative constancy of the solar wind mass flux at Earth reflects the tendency for the heating rate in coronal holes to increase monotonically with the footpoint field strength, with very high mass fluxes at the Sun offsetting the enormous flux-tube expansion in active region holes. Although coronal holes are its main source, slow wind is also released continually from helmet streamer loops by reconnection processes, giving rise to plasma blobs (small flux ropes) and the heliospheric plasma sheet.

Antiochos, Spiro; Linker, Jon; Lionello, Roberto; Mikić, Zoran; Titov, Viacheslav; Zurbuchen, Thomas

doi: 10.1007/s11214-011-9795-7pmid: N/A

Determining how the heliospheric magnetic field and plasma connect to the Sun’s corona and photosphere is, perhaps, the central problem in solar and heliospheric physics. For much of the heliosphere, this connection appears to be well understood. It is now generally accepted that so-called coronal holes, which appear dark in X-rays and are predominantly unipolar at the photosphere, are the sources of quasi-steady wind that is generally fast, >500 km/s, but can sometimes be slow. However, the connection to the Sun of the slow, non-steady wind is far from understood and remains a major mystery. We review the existing theories for the sources of the non-steady wind and demonstrate that they have difficulty accounting for both the observed composition of the wind and its large angular extent. A new theory is described in which this wind originates from the continuous opening and closing of narrow open field corridors in the corona, which give rise to a web of separatrices (the S-Web) in the heliosphere. Note that in this theory the corona—heliosphere connection is intrinsically dynamic, at least for this type of wind. Support for the S-Web model is derived from MHD solutions for the corona and wind during the time of the August 1, 2008 eclipse. Additionally, we perform fully dynamic numerical simulations of the corona and heliosphere in order to test the S-Web model as well as the interchange model proposed by Fisk and co-workers. We discuss the implications of our simulations for the competing theories and for understanding the corona—heliosphere connection, in general.

Gosling, J.

doi: 10.1007/s11214-011-9747-2pmid: N/A

It is only within the last 5 years that we have learned how to recognize the unambiguous signature of magnetic reconnection in the solar wind in the form of roughly Alfvénic accelerated plasma flows embedded within bifurcated magnetic field reversal regions (current sheets). This paper provides a brief overview of what has since been learned about reconnection in the solar wind from both single and multi-spacecraft observations of these so-called reconnection exhausts.

Crooker, N.; Owens, M.

doi: 10.1007/s11214-011-9748-1pmid: N/A

Interchange reconnection at the Sun, that is, reconnection between a doubly-connected field loop and singly-connected or open field line that extends to infinity, has important implications for the heliospheric magnetic flux budget. Recent work on the topic is reviewed, with emphasis on two aspects. The first is a possible heliospheric signature of interchange reconnection at the coronal hole boundary, where open fields meet closed loops. The second aspect concerns the means by which the heliospheric magnetic field strength reached record-lows during the recent solar minimum period. A new implication of this work is that interchange reconnection may be responsible for the puzzling, occasional coincidence of the heliospheric current sheet and the interface between fast and slow flow in the solar wind.

Edmondson, J.

doi: 10.1007/s11214-011-9767-ypmid: N/A

The heating of the solar corona and therefore the generation of the solar wind, remain an active area of solar and heliophysics research. Several decades of in situ solar wind plasma observations have revealed a rich bimodal solar wind structure, well correlated with coronal magnetic field activity. Therefore, the reconnection processes associated with the large-scale dynamics of the corona likely play a major role in the generation of the slow solar wind flow regime. In order to elucidate the relationship between reconnection-driven coronal magnetic field structure and dynamics and the generation of the slow solar wind, this paper reviews the observations and phenomenology of the solar wind and coronal magnetic field structure. The geometry and topology of nested flux systems, and the (interchange) reconnection process, in the context of coronal physics is then explained. Once these foundations are laid out, the paper summarizes several fully dynamic, 3D MHD calculations of the global coronal system. Finally, the results of these calculations justify a number of important implications and conclusions on the role of reconnection in the structural dynamics of the coronal magnetic field and the generation of the solar wind.

Mason, G.; Gloeckler, G.

doi: 10.1007/s11214-010-9741-0pmid: N/A

At energies above the bulk solar wind and pick-up ion cutoff, observations reveal an interplanetary suprathermal ion population extending to ∼1 MeV/nucleon and even higher energies. These suprathermal ions are found under a wide variety of conditions including periods when there are no obvious nearby accelerating shocks. We review the observational properties of these ions in quiet solar wind periods near 1 AU, including transient Corotating Interaction Region (CIR) events, and other, quieter periods in between transient enhancements. The particle energy spectra are power laws close to E −1.5 in the range above the solar wind, rolling over at energies of a few hundred keV/nucleon to a few MeV/nucleon. Although the C/O and Fe/O ratios of the tails is close to that of the solar wind, pickup ions and 3He found in the tails indicate sources distinct from the solar wind. We briefly review several mechanisms that have been proposed to explain these ions.

Landi, S.; Bettarini, L.

doi: 10.1007/s11214-011-9824-6pmid: N/A

The properties of spontaneous reconnection of a current sheet analyzed via direct three-dimensional simulations are presented. In particular the non-linear dynamics of resistive instabilities has been studied in absence or in presence of velocity shears. It is shown that full three-dimensional simulations allow the inclusion of a rich variety of (ideal) secondary instabilities which, depending on the initial equilibrium magnetic field configuration, determine the final fate of the system in the fully non linear regime. In particular in presence of a guide-field the dynamic is similar to what observed in two-dimensional simulations with energy driven toward both smaller and larger scales and energy spectra anisotropy. For different magnetic field configurations, the final state is characterized by the disruption of the coalesced structure created during the resistive phase and the system is characterized by a more chaotic state. A discussion on the importance of high-order numerical techniques in numerical simulations of magnetic reconnection is also present.

Daughton, William; Roytershteyn, Vadim

doi: 10.1007/s11214-011-9766-zpmid: N/A

In large-scale systems of interest to solar physics, there is growing evidence that magnetic reconnection involves the formation of extended current sheets which are unstable to plasmoids (secondary magnetic islands). Recent results suggest that plasmoids may play a critical role in the evolution of reconnection, and have raised fundamental questions regarding the applicability of resistive MHD to various regimes. In collisional plasmas, where the thickness of all resistive layers remain larger than the ion gyroradius, simulations results indicate that plasmoids permit reconnection to proceed much faster than the slow Sweet-Parker scaling. However, it appears these rates are still a factor of ∼10× slower than observed in kinetic regimes, where the diffusion region current sheet falls below the ion gyroradius and additional physics beyond MHD becomes crucially important. Over a broad range of interesting parameters, the formation of plasmoids may naturally induce a transition into these kinetic regimes. New insights into this scenario have emerged in recent years based on a combination of linear theory, fluid simulations and fully kinetic simulations which retain a Fokker-Planck collision operator to allow a rigorous treatment of Coulomb collisions as the reconnection electric field exceeds the runaway limit. Here, we present some new results from this approach for guide field reconnection. Based upon these results, a parameter space map is constructed that summarizes the present understanding of how reconnection proceeds in various regimes.

Cassak, P.; Shay, M.

doi: 10.1007/s11214-011-9755-2pmid: N/A

Magnetic reconnection may play an important role in heating the corona through a release of magnetic energy. An understanding of how reconnection proceeds can contribute to explaining the observed behavior. Here, recent theoretical work on magnetic reconnection for coronal conditions is reviewed. Topics include the rate that collisionless (Hall) reconnection proceeds, the conditions under which Hall reconnection begins, and the effect of secondary islands (plasmoids) both on the scaling and properties of collisional (Sweet-Parker) reconnection and on the onset of Hall reconnection. Applications to magnetic energy storage and release in the corona are discussed.