Magnetic reconnection and energy release in the solar corona by Taylor relaxation

✍ Scribed by G. E. Vekstein; E. R. Priest; C. D. C. Steele

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1991
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 802 KB
• Volume: 131
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0038-0938
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00151640

✦ Synopsis

The heating of the solar corona by resistive turbulence of coronal magnetic fields is considered. The theory of this process, based on the Taylor-Heyvaerts-Priest hypothesis and a magnetic relaxation equation, is developed. Such an approach allows one to obtain the successive magnetic reconnection configurations and energy balance of the coronal magnetic field in response to prescribed motions of the photospheric footpoints. Two specific models of the coronal magnetic configuration are investigated, namely an array of closely packed flux tubes and a two-dimensional magnetic arcade.