SH11B-2391
Examining the Release Mechanism of Intermittent Streamer Blobs
Monday, 14 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Dogacan Su Ozturk, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, AOSS, Ann Arbor, MI, United States, Bart van der Holst, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Departament of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, Ann Arbor, MI, United States, Igor Sokolov, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI, United States and Tamas I Gombosi, Univ of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States
Abstract:
The white light images from the Large-Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) C2 and C3 have shown small-scale periodic plasmoid releases from the tip of the Helmet Streamers. The density and velocity of these blobs show similarities with the slow solar wind. There are various scenarios proposed to comprehend the release mechanism for these plasmoids. Most widely accepted explanations include interchange reconnection and significant proton coronal heating at the streamer tip. A three-dimensional global coronal model will be used to examine this intermittent blob release over a several day period. We use the new real time version of Alfven Wave Solar Model (AWSoM-R) to decrease the computational costs. In AWSoM-R, the global magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations for the lower corona are solved along one-dimensional magnetic field line threads. The Alfven wave dissipation is partitioned into coronal heating of protons and electrons. We study how this heat partitioning affects plasmoid formation. We investigate the size and periodicity of the streamer blobs for Carrington Rotation 2109 (12 April 2011-09 May 2011) by constructing synthetic white light images from the time-dependent model and comparing our results with observations.
