Antiochos, S. K., Z. Mikić, V. S. Titov, R. Lionello, and J. A. Linker, A Model for the Sources of the Slow Solar Wind, ApJ, 731, 112 (2011) (ADS)
(click on the image for a larger version)
This cartoon and one of
Titov et al. from the same year
deal with the "S-web", a neologism trying to capture the complex 3D geometry
by which the complicated photospheric magnetic field simplifies into a
basically bipolar heliospheric field.
The S-web is the web of separatrices, structures harking back to the
Giovanelli introduction of
3D magnetic structures into the physics of solar flares, way back in 1948.
The separatrices divide domains of different magnetic connectivity, upon
which currents flow to establish each boundary surface physically.
This concept has led to a vast family of beautiful graphics, but of course
the actual physics at microscales (and therefore the very structure of
any S-web representation) remains ill-understood.
This cartoon, hands down, wins the "most anthropomorphic" trophy, resembling
as it does a Kachina.
See less distracting version
in the author's review, in the following year.
This cartoon and one of Titov et al. from the same year deal with the "S-web", a neologism trying to capture the complex 3D geometry by which the complicated photospheric magnetic field simplifies into a basically bipolar heliospheric field. The S-web is the web of separatrices, structures harking back to the Giovanelli introduction of 3D magnetic structures into the physics of solar flares, way back in 1948. The separatrices divide domains of different magnetic connectivity, upon which currents flow to establish each boundary surface physically. This concept has led to a vast family of beautiful graphics, but of course the actual physics at microscales (and therefore the very structure of any S-web representation) remains ill-understood.
This cartoon, hands down, wins the "most anthropomorphic" trophy, resembling as it does a Kachina. See less distracting version in the author's review, in the following year.