HR: 0830h
AN: SP41A-02    [Abstracts]
TI: Investigating the Coronal Heating Models at High Resolution
AU: * Mok, Y
EM: ymok@uci.edu
AF: University of California, Department of Physics and Astronomy University of California, Irvine, CA 92697
AU: Lionello, R
EM: Roberto.Lionello@saic.com
AF: Science Applications International Corporation, 10260 Campus Point Drive, San Diego, CA 92121
AU: Mikic, Z
EM: mikicz@saic.com
AF: Science Applications International Corporation, 10260 Campus Point Drive, San Diego, CA 92121
AU: Linker, J
EM: linkerj@saic.com
AF: Science Applications International Corporation, 10260 Campus Point Drive, San Diego, CA 92121
AB: Active regions are an excellent testing ground for coronal heating models because of their complex magnetic-field topology. Due to their distinctive parametric dependences on the magnetic field and plasma properties, each heating mechanism tends to deposit energy in preferential locations. The thermal structure of the atmosphere is further made distinctive by the local magnetic field through the highly anisotropic thermal conductivity. As a result, each heating model gives rise to unique radiation signatures, including EUV and soft X-ray. The observed EUV and soft X-ray emissions can then be used to test the validity of the models. Unfortunately, computing the thermal structure in 3D encounters tremendous difficulty because of the extremely steep gradients in temperature and density in the transition region, even using a variable-size mesh. In our previous investigations, we were forced to use an approximated thermal conductivity and compute the structure at low resolution. We have developed a new, and improved, method to treat the transition region so that the radiation signatures are not affected by the approximations. Quantitative comparison with observations becomes possible and will be presented. Using this highly efficient method, we have also studied the coronal responses to time dependent heating. Work supported by The Sun-Earth Connection Theory Program of NASA
DE: 7509 Corona
DE: 7524 Magnetic fields
SC: Solar Physics Division - AAS [SP]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly