The solar corona is the outer solar atmosphere which consists of
more than one million K plasma.
The heating process of the solar corona is one of the unsolved astrophysical issues.
The heated coronal plasma flows out and reaches the edge of the solar system.
This flowing plasma is called as ''solar wind".
The coronal heating process is known to be closely related to the complex magnetic field in the solar atmosphere. We developed a corona model which includes the observed magnetic field on the solar surface with a very high resolution and determines the plasma density on the basis of the three dimensional structure of the coronal magnetic field.
Using this coronal mode, we produced this predicted total solar eclipse image. This image is produced on the basis of the latest observation of the global photospheric magnetic field obtained with SOHO satellite during Apr 2009.
Fig.1:Three dimensional coronal magnetic field constructed from
the observed global photospheric magnetic field during Jun 2009.
The color map of the solar surface displays the photospheric magnetic field
where the red is positive and the blue is negative.
The tubes are coronal magnetic field lines.
The red and the blue colored ones are
those opened to the interplanetary space
where the direction of red ones are outward while the blue ones are inward.
The most gray ones are closed field lines whose both edges
are rooted to the solar surface.
The transparent surface surrounding the Sun is the boundary of
the opposite open field which is called as current sheet.
We can see the solar corona with the photospheric visible light scattered by coronal plasma. The coronal structure recognized in solar eclipse images correspond to the density structures of the coronal plasma. This structures are closely related to those of the magnetic field. For example, the coronal density within the open field shown as colored field lines in Fig.1 is lower than that in closed field whose both edges are anchored to the solar surface. The reason is because the plasma within the open field flows as solar wind, while that in closed field does not flow. Furthermore, the magnetic field strength of the solar surface edge related to the heating and the supply of the plasma. The density structure from the information of the magnetic field is shown in Fig.2.
Fig.2: Density isosurface added to Fig.1.
The movie which shows three dimensional structure is here.
Please click here to see the movie
The cusp-shaped arcade connected to the current sheet (the boundary of the open field) is a typical coronal structure called as ''streamer''. As you can see in the above movie, the streamer forms waved structure, influenced by the global magnetic field of the Sun.
From the density structure, we produced a predicted image of the corona (Fig.3 top panel) calculating the light scattered by coronal plasma. The high resolution image is located here.
For comparison with bright features in the predicted eclipse image three dimensional structure of the streamer is shown in bottom of Fig.3. The comparison shows that the two bright features on the left (east) side of the Sun are formed at the angles where some parts of the waved current sheet become parallel to the line of sight.
Fig.3: Relation between the bright feature in the eclipse image and three dimensional structure of streamer. Top is the predicted image of the total solar eclipse. Bottom is corresponding structure magnetic field and density (same as Fig.2).
The coronal heating process is known to be closely related to the complex magnetic field in the solar atmosphere. We developed a corona model which includes the observed magnetic field on the solar surface with a very high resolution and determines the plasma density on the basis of the three dimensional structure of the coronal magnetic field.
Using this coronal mode, we produced this predicted total solar eclipse image. This image is produced on the basis of the latest observation of the global photospheric magnetic field obtained with SOHO satellite during Apr 2009.
Fig.1:Three dimensional coronal magnetic field constructed from
the observed global photospheric magnetic field during Jun 2009.
The color map of the solar surface displays the photospheric magnetic field
where the red is positive and the blue is negative.
The tubes are coronal magnetic field lines.
The red and the blue colored ones are
those opened to the interplanetary space
where the direction of red ones are outward while the blue ones are inward.
The most gray ones are closed field lines whose both edges
are rooted to the solar surface.
The transparent surface surrounding the Sun is the boundary of
the opposite open field which is called as current sheet.
We can see the solar corona with the photospheric visible light scattered by coronal plasma. The coronal structure recognized in solar eclipse images correspond to the density structures of the coronal plasma. This structures are closely related to those of the magnetic field. For example, the coronal density within the open field shown as colored field lines in Fig.1 is lower than that in closed field whose both edges are anchored to the solar surface. The reason is because the plasma within the open field flows as solar wind, while that in closed field does not flow. Furthermore, the magnetic field strength of the solar surface edge related to the heating and the supply of the plasma. The density structure from the information of the magnetic field is shown in Fig.2.
Fig.2: Density isosurface added to Fig.1.The movie which shows three dimensional structure is here.
Please click here to see the movie
The cusp-shaped arcade connected to the current sheet (the boundary of the open field) is a typical coronal structure called as ''streamer''. As you can see in the above movie, the streamer forms waved structure, influenced by the global magnetic field of the Sun.
From the density structure, we produced a predicted image of the corona (Fig.3 top panel) calculating the light scattered by coronal plasma. The high resolution image is located here.
For comparison with bright features in the predicted eclipse image three dimensional structure of the streamer is shown in bottom of Fig.3. The comparison shows that the two bright features on the left (east) side of the Sun are formed at the angles where some parts of the waved current sheet become parallel to the line of sight.
Fig.3: Relation between the bright feature in the eclipse image and three dimensional structure of streamer. Top is the predicted image of the total solar eclipse. Bottom is corresponding structure magnetic field and density (same as Fig.2).
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