Home > Science Seminar > Spring 2007 Seminar Schedule > Heating the Solar Corona
The Science Seminar Series: February 22, 2007 4pm
Heating the Solar Corona: a Hot Topic in Plasma Astrophysics
Dr. Christopher Watts
University of New Mexico
Powell Hall AuditoriumTime: 4:00 - 5:00pm
Abstract
The surface or photosphere of the sun is a blackbody with a temperature of about 5800° C, and the basic mechanism that heats the sun, nuclear fusion, is well understood. However, there is a disconcerting paradox: The temperature of the solar atmosphere or corona starts to rise away from the surface to about 1,000,000° C. It’s like walking away from a fire … and you suddenly feel hotter. The energy that heats the corona is almost certainly stored in the magnetic field of the sun. There are two main competing models for how this energy is released: 1) Magnetic waves and 2) Tearing and reconnection of the magnetic field. Both models are probably valid in different regimes. In this talk, I will present an overview of the coronal heating paradox and the two heating models. Then I’ll talk about current research by plasma physicists, using both remote observations and laboratory simulations, focused on substantiating these models.
Sponsored by the Division of Plasma Physics of the American Physical Society under a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy