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Magnetic Connectivity in the Corona as a Source of Structure in the Solar Wind
Author(s) -
Burkholder B. L.,
Otto A.,
Delamere P. A.,
Borovsky J. E.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9402
pISSN - 2169-9380
DOI - 10.1029/2018ja026132
Subject(s) - physics , solar wind , nanoflares , corona (planetary geology) , magnetopause , geophysics , magnetic field , interplanetary magnetic field , coronal hole , field line , dipole model of the earth's magnetic field , mercury's magnetic field , photosphere , coronal mass ejection , computational physics , astrobiology , quantum mechanics , venus
Five decades of satellite data confirm that the solar wind contains many boundaries separating flow with distinct magnetic and plasma properties. Some speculate the boundaries in the solar wind found at Earth originate at the solar surface and are carried along with the expanding solar wind as fossil structures to 1 AU. This begs the question, is it the physics and magnetic structure above the photosphere that creates well‐defined boundaries between different magnetic flux regions at 1 AU in the solar wind? Magnetic boundaries in the corona exist all the time as topological features of null points in the field. These topological magnetic boundaries seem to be likely locations for plasma boundaries. It can be expected that these boundaries are typical locations where field line‐integrated quantities, such as field‐aligned current, experience large and abrupt changes. We perform three‐dimensional resistive magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the solar corona driven by photospheric foot point motions. We find that large and abrupt changes occur for field line‐integrated quantities across a magnetic topological boundary and the cause for these changes is the discontinuous mapping for magnetic field lines and thus for Alfvén waves across these boundaries. It is also demonstrated via in situ properties that thin layers of field‐aligned and perpendicular currents are frequently located at or close to topological boundaries.