The solar chromosphere contains the Sun's "magnetic transition region," a thin layer where hydrodynamic and magnetic forces come into balance. In the magnetic transition region, linear theories break down and, in principle, the mechanical restoring force from subphotospheric convective turbulence can be converted into a dissipative form to provide energetic input to the outer solar atmosphere. The PI's team proposes to obtain better understanding of the physics of the magnetic transition region and to investigate the flow of mass and energy through the solar chromosphere. This will represent an important step toward discovering the physical processes that heat the Sun's corona to over one million degrees Kelvin and accelerate the solar wind, the two most outstanding puzzles in solar physics. The PI and his collaborators plan to determine the properties of the magnetic transition region through observational and theoretical studies of the seismic response of the chromospheric plasma to the passage of acoustic/magneto-acoustic waves through it. These waves are generated by a variety of sources in the solar interior, many of which are related to convective phenomena. The strength of the proposed research program lies in the synthesis between interpretation and diagnosis of observations and advanced simulations of the chromospheric plasma by a team that consists of experts in each area.
The proposers believe that the proposed research will increase our understanding of the changing flow of mass and energy through the chromosphere at the very beginning of the Solar-Terrestrial Connection. This effort will offer insight into a broad range of fundamental physical processes in the solar chromosphere and point to their potential impact within the solar system. The proposed research will exploit data from both existing and planned NSF and NASA funded observing platforms. The PI expected that this project, based on its interplay of instrumentation, observation, data analysis, and simulation, would provide a potentially exciting basis for an excellent Ph.D. thesis research program.
