Filament Mass Losses Forced by Magnetic Reconnection in the Solar Corona

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Johnston, Craig D., Daldorff, Lars K. S., Schuck, Peter W., Linton, Mark G., Barnes, Will T., Leake, James E., Daley-Yates, Simon
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Johnston, Craig D.
Daldorff, Lars K. S.
Schuck, Peter W.
Linton, Mark G.
Barnes, Will T.
Leake, James E.
Daley-Yates, Simon
author_facet Johnston, Craig D.
Daldorff, Lars K. S.
Schuck, Peter W.
Linton, Mark G.
Barnes, Will T.
Leake, James E.
Daley-Yates, Simon
contents Recent observations of the solar atmosphere in cool extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lines have reported the prevalence of coronal rain falling from coronal cloud filaments that are associated with the magnetic dips of coronal X-point structures. These filaments mysteriously appear as clouds of mass in the corona that subsequently shrink and disappear due to mass losses that drain as coronal rain along arced field lines. Using a two and a half dimensional, magnetohydrodynamic model, we investigated evaporation-condensation as the formation mechanism of the subset of coronal cloud filaments that form above coronal X-points. Our simulation included the effects of field-aligned thermal conduction and optically thin radiation and used the state-of-the-art Transition Region Adaptive Conduction (TRAC) method to model the formation, maintenance, and mass loss of a filament above a coronal X-point. This paper presents a physical model that demonstrates magnetic reconnection as a filament loss mechanism, producing hybrid filament/coronal rain via mass losses through the X-point. A detailed analysis of how the mass of the filament forces the field to reconnect is also presented, revealing three phases that characterize the evolution of the reconnecting current sheet and associated mass losses. We conclude that the formation of certain coronal cloud filaments and subsequent mass losses via coronal rain can be explained by the evaporation-condensation model combined with filament mass losses forced by magnetic reconnection. We also report that rebound shocks generated by the impact of coronal rain condensations on the chromosphere together with retractive upflows can cause upward propagating condensations to form through a dynamic thermal runaway process.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_18657
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Filament Mass Losses Forced by Magnetic Reconnection in the Solar Corona
Johnston, Craig D.
Daldorff, Lars K. S.
Schuck, Peter W.
Linton, Mark G.
Barnes, Will T.
Leake, James E.
Daley-Yates, Simon
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Recent observations of the solar atmosphere in cool extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lines have reported the prevalence of coronal rain falling from coronal cloud filaments that are associated with the magnetic dips of coronal X-point structures. These filaments mysteriously appear as clouds of mass in the corona that subsequently shrink and disappear due to mass losses that drain as coronal rain along arced field lines. Using a two and a half dimensional, magnetohydrodynamic model, we investigated evaporation-condensation as the formation mechanism of the subset of coronal cloud filaments that form above coronal X-points. Our simulation included the effects of field-aligned thermal conduction and optically thin radiation and used the state-of-the-art Transition Region Adaptive Conduction (TRAC) method to model the formation, maintenance, and mass loss of a filament above a coronal X-point. This paper presents a physical model that demonstrates magnetic reconnection as a filament loss mechanism, producing hybrid filament/coronal rain via mass losses through the X-point. A detailed analysis of how the mass of the filament forces the field to reconnect is also presented, revealing three phases that characterize the evolution of the reconnecting current sheet and associated mass losses. We conclude that the formation of certain coronal cloud filaments and subsequent mass losses via coronal rain can be explained by the evaporation-condensation model combined with filament mass losses forced by magnetic reconnection. We also report that rebound shocks generated by the impact of coronal rain condensations on the chromosphere together with retractive upflows can cause upward propagating condensations to form through a dynamic thermal runaway process.
title Filament Mass Losses Forced by Magnetic Reconnection in the Solar Corona
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.18657