SH23D-05
Dynamics of Polar Jets from the Chromosphere to the Corona: Mass, Momentum and Energy Transfer
Tuesday, 15 December 2015: 14:44
2011 (Moscone West)
Judit Szente1, Gabor Toth1, Ward Manchester1, Bart van der Holst1, Enrico Landi2, C Richard DeVore3 and Tamas I Gombosi4, (1)University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI, United States, (2)University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences, Ann Arbor, MI, United States, (3)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (4)Univ of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States
Abstract:
Coronal jets, routinely observed by multiple instruments at multiple wavelengths, provide a unique opportunity to understand the relationships between magnetic field topology, reconnection, and solar wind heating and acceleration. We simulate coronal jets with the Alfvén Wave Solar Model (AWSoM) [van der Holst (2014)] and focus our study on the thermodynamical evolution of the plasma. AWSoM solves the two-temperature MHD equations with electron heat conduction, which not only addresses the thermodynamics of individual species, but also allows for the construction of synthetic images from the EUV and soft X-ray wavelength range. Our jet model takes the form of a slowly rotating bipole field imbedded in the open magnetic field of a coronal hole; a topology suggested by observations. We follow the formation and evolution of polar jets starting from the chromosphere and extending into the outer corona. The simulations show small-scale eruptive reconnection events that self-consistently heat and accelerate the solar wind. Our results provide a quantitative comparison to observations made in the EUV and X-ray spectrum.
