A Reconnection-driven Rarefaction Wave Model for Coronal Outflows
Bradshaw, S. J., G. Aulanier, and G. Del Zanna, A Reconnection-driven Rarefaction Wave Model for Coronal Outflows, ApJ, 743, 66 (2011) (ADS)
(click on the image for a larger version)
This cartoon is rated "good", although it is painfully trivial.
It is good because it illustrates a simple piece of physics,
never mind that we don't understand it yet: magnetic reconnection between
open and closed field structures,
aimed to reflect the outflows (blueshifted EUV line signatures) observed
following large-scale reconnection.
This geometry follows the Heyvaerts
scheme.
The paper describes simulations
that suggest the presence of rarefaction waves following this reconnection.
This could help to explain the formation of the slow solar wind, the
authors suggest... the citation history suggests that about three people per
year consider this to be a possibility.
This cartoon is rated "good", although it is painfully trivial. It is good because it illustrates a simple piece of physics, never mind that we don't understand it yet: magnetic reconnection between open and closed field structures, aimed to reflect the outflows (blueshifted EUV line signatures) observed following large-scale reconnection. This geometry follows the Heyvaerts scheme. The paper describes simulations that suggest the presence of rarefaction waves following this reconnection. This could help to explain the formation of the slow solar wind, the authors suggest... the citation history suggests that about three people per year consider this to be a possibility.