NUMERICAL EXPERIMENTS ON THE TWO-STEP EMERGENCE OF TWISTED MAGNETIC FLUX TUBES IN THE SUN

Journal Article · Sun Jul 10 04:00:00 EDT 2011 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/735/2/126· OSTI ID:21578373

Toriumi, S; Yokoyama, T ^[1]

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1. Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033 (Japan)

We present the new results of the two-dimensional numerical experiments on the cross-sectional evolution of a twisted magnetic flux tube rising from the deeper solar convection zone (-20,000 km) to the corona through the surface. The initial depth is 10 times deeper than most of the previous calculations focusing on the flux emergence from the uppermost convection zone. We find that the evolution is illustrated by the following two-step process. The initial tube rises due to its buoyancy, subject to aerodynamic drag due to the external flow. Because of the azimuthal component of the magnetic field, the tube maintains its coherency and does not deform to become a vortex roll pair. When the flux tube approaches the photosphere and expands sufficiently, the plasma on the rising tube accumulates to suppress the tube's emergence. Therefore, the flux decelerates and extends horizontally beneath the surface. This new finding owes to our large-scale simulation, which simultaneously calculates the dynamics within the interior as well as above the surface. As the magnetic pressure gradient increases around the surface, magnetic buoyancy instability is triggered locally and, as a result, the flux rises further into the solar corona. We also find that the deceleration occurs at a higher altitude than assumed in our previous experiment using magnetic flux sheets. By conducting parametric studies, we investigate the conditions for the two-step emergence of the rising flux tube: field strength {approx}> 1.5 x 10{sup 4} G and the twist {approx}> 5.0 x 10{sup -4} km{sup -1} at -20,000 km depth.

• OSTI ID: 21578373
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 735; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ACCELERATION
ATMOSPHERES
CHROMOSPHERE
CONVECTION
ENERGY TRANSFER
EVOLUTION
FLUID MECHANICS
HEAT TRANSFER
HYDRODYNAMICS
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MAGNETIC FLUX
MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICS
MAIN SEQUENCE STARS
MASS TRANSFER
MECHANICS
PARAMETRIC ANALYSIS
PHOTOSPHERE
PRESSURE GRADIENTS
SOLAR ATMOSPHERE
SOLAR CORONA
STARS
STELLAR ATMOSPHERES
STELLAR CORONAE
SUN
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS