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Comment on “Nonlinear studies of coronal heating by the resonant absorption of Alfvén waves” by Ofman et al.
Author(s) -
Hollweg Joseph V.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/95gl02340
Subject(s) - physics , absorption (acoustics) , refraction , instability , nonlinear system , mixing (physics) , computational physics , phase (matter) , astrophysics , mechanics , geophysics , atomic physics , optics , quantum mechanics
Ofman et al. [1994] claim to have simulated the nonlinear development of the resonant absorption of Alfvén waves. We argue that linear resonant absorption does not occur in the configuration they studied and we suggest that phase mixing (refraction) is the dominant linear effect in their simulations. We point out, however, that their demonstrtion of the Kelvin‐Helmholz instability of refracting Alfvén waves may have important implications for solar coronal heating.