On the Velocity Drift between Ions in the Solar Atmosphere

The solar atmosphere is composed of many species, which are populated at different ionization and excitation levels. The upper chromosphere, transition region, and corona are nearly collisionless. Consequently, slippage between, for instance, ions and neutral particles, or interactions between separ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2020-09, Vol.900 (2), p.101
Main Authors: Martínez-Sykora, Juan, Szydlarski, Mikolaj, Hansteen, Viggo H., De Pontieu, Bart
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alfven waves
Astrophysics
Atmosphere
Chromosphere
Computational fluid dynamics
Conduction
Corona
Coupling (molecular)
Drift
Electric fields
Helium
Hydrogen
Ion velocity
Ionization
Ions
Kinetic energy
Magnetohydrodynamical simulations
Magnetohydrodynamics
Momentum
Neutral particles
Nonequilibrium ionization
Radiation
Solar atmosphere
Solar chromosphere
Solar chromospheric heating
Solar corona
Solar coronal heating
Thermal energy
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Summary:The solar atmosphere is composed of many species, which are populated at different ionization and excitation levels. The upper chromosphere, transition region, and corona are nearly collisionless. Consequently, slippage between, for instance, ions and neutral particles, or interactions between separate species, may play important roles. We have developed a 3D MFMS numerical code (Ebysus) to investigate such effects. Ebysus is capable of treating species (e.g., hydrogen, helium, etc.) and fluids (neutrals, excited and ionized elements) separately, including nonequilibrium ionization, momentum exchange, radiation, thermal conduction, and other complex processes in the solar atmosphere. Treating different species as different fluids leads to drifts between different ions and an electric field that couples these motions. The coupling for two ionized fluids can lead to an anti-phase rotational motion between them. Different ionized species and momentum exchange can dissipate this velocity drift, i.e., convert wave kinetic energy into thermal energy. High-frequency Alfvén waves driven by, e.g., reconnection thought to occur in the solar atmosphere, can drive such multi-ion velocity drifts.
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.3847/1538-4357/ababa3