ESP Online Seminar: MHD wave modes in the solar magnetic flux tubes with elliptical cross-section (Anwar Ali Aldhafeeri)

ESPOS

  • Date: Nov 7, 2019
  • Time: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Anwar Ali Aldhafeeri
  • Plasma Dynamics Group, The University of Sheffield
  • Location: The University of Sheffield (broadcasted at MPS)
  • Room: Seminar room Gemini
  • Host: Pradeep Chitta
ESP Online Seminar: MHD wave modes in the solar magnetic flux tubes with elliptical cross-section (Anwar Ali Aldhafeeri)

Many previous studies of MHD modes in the magnetic flux tubes were focussed on deriving a dispersion relation for cylindrical waveguides. However, from observations it is well known that, for example, the cross-sectional shape of sunspots and pores are not perfect circles and can often be much better approximated by ellipses. From a theoretical point of view, any imbalance in a waveguide’s diameters, even if very small, will move the study of the problem from cylindrical to elliptical coordinates. In this talk, I will therefore describe a model that predicts the MHD wave modes that can be trapped and propagate in a compressible magnetic flux tube with an elliptical cross-section embedded in a magnetic environment. I will discuss the resultant dispersion relations for body and surface modes, then then I will show how the ellipticity of a magnetic flux tube effects these solutions (with specific applications to the coronal and photospheric conditions). From a practical point of view the information from these dispersion diagrams does not show how these MHD modes will manifest themselves in observational data. Therefore, I will also present several visualisations of the eigenfunctions of these MHD wave modes and explain how the eccentricity effects each wave mode.

Some of the most dynamic solar phenomena occur in complex magnetic configurations such as quadrupolar regions. To study eruptivity in quadrupolar regions, we perform 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the partial emergence of two segments of a flux tube from the solar interior into a non-magnetized, stratified atmosphere. The emergence leads to the formation of two initially separated bipoles, which later come in contact, forming a strong polarity inversion line. Above the two bipoles, two magnetic lobes expand and interact through a series of current sheets at the interface between them. Two recurrent confined eruptions are produced. In both cases, the reconnection between sheared, low-lying field lines form a flux rope. The confined eruptions result from the interaction between the two magnetic lobes at different heights in the solar atmosphere. These interactions create field lines that assist the eruption of the flux ropes and also create other field lines that inhibit the eruptions. The flux rope of the first, weaker, eruption almost fully reconnects with the overlying field. The flux rope of the second, more energetic, eruption is confined by the overlying strapping field. During the second eruption, the flux rope is enhanced in size, flux, and twist, similar to confined-flare-to-flux-rope observations. Proxies of the emission reveal the two erupting filaments channels. A flare arcade is only formed in the second eruption owing to the longer lasting and more efficient reconnection at the current sheet below the flux rope.

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