Using Convection Zone-to-Corona Models to Understand the Physics of the Solar Wind

Abstract:

How magnetic energy and flux emerges from the turbulent convective interior of the Sun into the solar atmosphere is of great importance to a number of challenging problems in Heliophysics. With the wealth of data from space-based and ground-based observatories, it is evident that solar magnetic fields span the entirety of the convection zone-to-corona system, and do not exist in isolation in a localized region, or interact only over a prescribed spatial scale.

The challenge of modeling this system in its entirety is that the magnetic field not only spans multiple scales, but also regions whose physical conditions vary dramatically. In this overview, I will summarize recent progress in the effort to dynamically model the upper convection zone-to-corona system over large spatial scales, and will discuss applications of these new models to Solar Probe Plus science.