Currents in the Solar Atmosphere and a Theory of Solar Flares
Alfvén, H. and P. Carlqvist, Currents in the Solar Atmosphere and a Theory of Solar Flares, Sol. Phys., 1, 220-228 (1967) (ADS)
(click on the image for a larger version)
A grossly simple but highly influential early cartoon, introducing the idea that
current systems in the corona play an important role in describing
the physics.
This seems to be common lore in
magnetospheric physics,
but is highly controversial in the solar application.
The details
of the Alfvén-Carlqvist model (eg, the way they overestimated the
solar abundance of mercury!) clearly have problems, but this cartoon
served to begin what still seems like an historically important
debate between the proponents of B and the partisans of J.
A grossly simple but highly influential early cartoon, introducing the idea that current systems in the corona play an important role in describing the physics. This seems to be common lore in magnetospheric physics, but is highly controversial in the solar application. The details of the Alfvén-Carlqvist model (eg, the way they overestimated the solar abundance of mercury!) clearly have problems, but this cartoon served to begin what still seems like an historically important debate between the proponents of B and the partisans of J.