Heating the Solar Atmosphere

摘要

The temperature of the Sun increases markedly as one moves from its surface to the outer layers of its atmosphere. Types of plasma waves called Alfven waves, that are hypothesized to be incompressible and driven by magnetic tension, are considered to be the best explanation for how energy is transported through the solar atmosphere, but their unambiguous detection is still in doubt. Jess et al. (p. 1582; see the news story by Kerr) obtained high-resolution images of the Sun and found oscillations that bear the signatures of torsional Alfven waves and that carry sufficient energy to heat the solar atmosphere.