Energy Build-up and Release Mechanisms in Solar and Auroral Flares
Obayashi, T., Energy Build-up and Release Mechanisms in Solar and Auroral Flares, Sol. Phys., 40, 217-226 (1975) (ADS)
(click on the image for a larger version)
A prescient cartoon in a field (aurora/solar-flare analogy) that
comes and goes with time (see
Akasofu for another early one,
and Martens-Kuin for some
further physics).
Has anybody learned anything further from this kind of exercise since this
paper was written?
At a rough guess 90% (or more) of all solar physicists could not
define "Cowling conductivity," and indeed many of them happily
ignore the mere existence of current carriers completely.
This is of course not so surprising in view of the distressing lack
of in-situ coronal plasma measurements, but there you are.
The point is that magnetospheric physics is dominated by efforts to
understand the behavior of currents and the detailed velocity
distribution functions of the relevant particles that carry the
electrical current, which varies widely by phenomenon.
So any solar analogy will have to make all this stuff up somehow.
In any case the author of this cartoon clearly shows the strong
chromospheric perpendicular currents driven by the "collapse" of
the emerged flux.
The only wrinkle that could be added now might be the constraint on
vertical current a la Melrose.
A prescient cartoon in a field (aurora/solar-flare analogy) that comes and goes with time (see Akasofu for another early one, and Martens-Kuin for some further physics). Has anybody learned anything further from this kind of exercise since this paper was written? At a rough guess 90% (or more) of all solar physicists could not define "Cowling conductivity," and indeed many of them happily ignore the mere existence of current carriers completely. This is of course not so surprising in view of the distressing lack of in-situ coronal plasma measurements, but there you are. The point is that magnetospheric physics is dominated by efforts to understand the behavior of currents and the detailed velocity distribution functions of the relevant particles that carry the electrical current, which varies widely by phenomenon. So any solar analogy will have to make all this stuff up somehow.
In any case the author of this cartoon clearly shows the strong chromospheric perpendicular currents driven by the "collapse" of the emerged flux. The only wrinkle that could be added now might be the constraint on vertical current a la Melrose.