scholarly journals Small-scale structure and dynamics of the lower solar atmosphere

2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (S247) ◽  
pp. 66-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sven Wedemeyer-Böhm ◽  
Friedrich Wöger

AbstractThe chromosphere of the quiet Sun is a highly intermittent and dynamic phenomenon. Three-dimensional radiation (magneto-)hydrodynamic simulations exhibit a mesh-like pattern of hot shock fronts and cool expanding post-shock regions in the sub-canopy part of the inter-network. This domain might be called “fluctosphere”. The pattern is produced by propagating shock waves, which are excited at the top of the convection zone and in the photospheric overshoot layer. New high-resolution observations reveal a ubiquitous small-scale pattern of bright structures and dark regions in-between. Although it qualitatively resembles the picture seen in models, more observations – e.g. with the future ALMA – are needed for thorough comparisons with present and future models. Quantitative comparisons demand for synthetic intensity maps and spectra for the three-dimensional (magneto-)hydrodynamic simulations. The necessary radiative transfer calculations, which have to take into account deviations from local thermodynamic equilibrium, are computationally very involved so that no reliable results have been produced so far. Until this task becomes feasible, we have to rely on careful qualitative comparisons of simulations and observations. Here we discuss what effects have to be considered for such a comparison. Nevertheless we are now on the verge of assembling a comprehensive picture of the solar chromosphere in inter-network regions as dynamic interplay of shock waves and structuring and guiding magnetic fields.

Author(s):  
Henrik Eklund ◽  
Sven Wedemeyer ◽  
Ben Snow ◽  
David B. Jess ◽  
Shahin Jafarzadeh ◽  
...  

Observations at millimetre wavelengths provide a valuable tool to study the small-scale dynamics in the solar chromosphere. We evaluate the physical conditions of the atmosphere in the presence of a propagating shock wave and link that to the observable signatures in mm-wavelength radiation, providing valuable insights into the underlying physics of mm-wavelength observations. A realistic numerical simulation from the three-dimensional radiative magnetohydrodynamic code Bifrost is used to interpret changes in the atmosphere caused by shock wave propagation. High-cadence (1 s) time series of brightness temperature ( T b ) maps are calculated with the Advanced Radiative Transfer code at the wavelengths 1.309 mm and 1.204 mm, which represents opposite sides of spectral band 6 of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). An example of shock wave propagation is presented. The brightness temperatures show a strong shock wave signature with large variation in formation height between approximately 0.7 and 1.4 Mm. The results demonstrate that millimetre brightness temperatures efficiently track upwardly propagating shock waves in the middle chromosphere. In addition, we show that the gradient of the brightness temperature between wavelengths within ALMA band 6 can potentially be used as a diagnostics tool in understanding the small-scale dynamics at the sampled layers. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue ‘High-resolution wave dynamics in the lower solar atmosphere’.


2020 ◽  
Vol 641 ◽  
pp. L5
Author(s):  
Jayant Joshi ◽  
Luc H. M. Rouppe van der Voort ◽  
Jaime de la Cruz Rodríguez

Ellerman Bomb-like brightenings of the hydrogen Balmer line wings in the quiet Sun, also known as quiet Sun Ellerman bombs (QSEBs), are a signature of the fundamental process of magnetic reconnection at the smallest observable scale in the lower solar atmosphere. We analyze high spatial resolution observations (0.″1) obtained with the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope to explore signatures of QSEBs in the Hβ line. We find that QSEBs are ubiquitous and uniformly distributed throughout the quiet Sun, predominantly occurring in intergranular lanes. We find up to 120 QSEBs in the field of view for a single moment in time; this is more than an order of magnitude higher than the number of QSEBs found in earlier Hα observations. This suggests that about half a million QSEBs could be present in the lower solar atmosphere at any given time. The QSEB brightenings found in the Hβ line wings also persist in the line core with a temporal delay and spatial offset toward the nearest solar limb. Our results suggest that QSEBs emanate through magnetic reconnection along vertically extended current sheets in the lower solar atmosphere. The apparent omnipresence of small-scale magnetic reconnection may play an important role in the energy balance of the solar chromosphere.


Author(s):  
Robert J. Rutten

The overall structure and the fine structure of the solar photosphere outside active regions are largely understood, except possibly the important roles of a turbulent near-surface dynamo at its bottom, internal gravity waves at its top and small-scale vorticity. Classical one-dimensional static radiation-escape modelling has been replaced by three-dimensional time-dependent magento-hydrodynamic simulations that come closer to reality. The solar chromosphere, in contrast, remains little understood, although its pivotal role in coronal mass and energy loading makes it a principal research area. Its fine structure defines its overall structure, so that hard-to-observe and hard-to-model small-scale dynamical processes are key to understanding. However, both chromospheric observation and chromospheric simulation presently mature towards the required sophistication. Open-field features seem of greater interest than easier-to-see closed-field features.


2020 ◽  
Vol 644 ◽  
pp. A152
Author(s):  
Henrik Eklund ◽  
Sven Wedemeyer ◽  
Mikolaj Szydlarski ◽  
Shahin Jafarzadeh ◽  
Juan Camilo Guevara Gómez

Context. Solar observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA) facilitate studies of the atmosphere of the Sun at chromospheric heights at high spatial and temporal resolution at millimeter wavelengths. Aims. ALMA intensity data at millimeter(mm)-wavelengths are used for a first detailed systematic assessment of the occurrence and properties of small-scale dynamical features in the quiet Sun. Methods. We analyzed ALMA Band 3 data (∼3 mm/100 GHz) with a spatial resolution of ∼1.4–2.1 arcsec and a duration of ∼40 min together with SDO/HMI magnetograms. The temporal evolution of the mm maps is studied to detect pronounced dynamical features, which then are connected to dynamical events via a k-means clustering algorithm. We studied the physical properties of the resulting events and explored whether or not they show properties consistent with propagating shock waves. For this purpose, we calculated observable shock wave signatures at mm wavelengths from one- and three-dimensional model atmospheres. Results. We detect 552 dynamical events with an excess in brightness temperature (ΔTb) of at least ≥400 K. The events show a large variety in size up to ∼9″, amplitude ΔTb up to ∼1200 K with typical values in the range ∼450–750 K, and lifetime at full width at half maximum of ΔTb of between ∼43 and 360 s, with typical values between ∼55 and 125 s. Furthermore, many of the events show signature properties suggesting that they are likely produced by propagating shock waves. Conclusions. There are a lot of small-scale dynamic structures detected in the Band 3 data, even though the spatial resolution sets limitations on the size of events that can be detected. The number of dynamic signatures in the ALMA mm data is very low in areas with photospheric footpoints with stronger magnetic fields, which is consistent with the expectation for propagating shock waves.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Chen Mazumdar ◽  
Michael E. Smyser ◽  
Jeffery Dean Heyborne ◽  
Daniel Robert Guildenbecher

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (42) ◽  
pp. 4991-5008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed S. Algahtani ◽  
Abdul Aleem Mohammed ◽  
Javed Ahmad

Three-dimensional printing (3DP) has a significant impact on organ transplant, cosmetic surgery, surgical planning, prosthetics and other medical fields. Recently, 3 DP attracted the attention as a promising method for the production of small-scale drug production. The knowledge expansion about the population differences in metabolism and genetics grows the need for personalised medicine substantially. In personalised medicine, the patient receives a tailored dose and the release profile is based on his pharmacokinetics data. 3 DP is expected to be one of the leading solutions for the personalisation of the drug dispensing. This technology can fabricate a drug-device with complicated geometries and fillings to obtain the needed drug release profile. The extrusionbased 3 DP is the most explored method for investigating the feasibility of the technology to produce a novel dosage form with properties that are difficult to achieve using the conventional industrial methods. Extrusionbased 3 DP is divided into two techniques, the semi-solid extrusion (SSE) and the fused deposition modeling (FDM). This review aims to explain the extrusion principles behind the two techniques and discuss their capabilities to fabricate novel dosage forms. The advantages and limitations observed through the application of SSE and FDM for fabrication of drug dosage forms were discussed in this review. Further exploration and development are required to implement this technology in the healthcare frontline for more effective and personalised treatment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 585
Author(s):  
Minghao Wu ◽  
Leen De Vos ◽  
Carlos Emilio Arboleda Chavez ◽  
Vasiliki Stratigaki ◽  
Maximilian Streicher ◽  
...  

The present work introduces an analysis of the measurement and model effects that exist in monopile scour protection experiments with repeated small scale tests. The damage erosion is calculated using the three dimensional global damage number S3D and subarea damage number S3D,i. Results show that the standard deviation of the global damage number σ(S3D)=0.257 and is approximately 20% of the mean S3D, and the standard deviation of the subarea damage number σ(S3D,i)=0.42 which can be up to 33% of the mean S3D. The irreproducible maximum wave height, chaotic flow field and non-repeatable armour layer construction are regarded as the main reasons for the occurrence of strong model effects. The measurement effects are limited to σ(S3D)=0.039 and σ(S3D,i)=0.083, which are minor compared to the model effects.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Carlo Alberto Niccolini Marmont Du Haut Champ ◽  
Fabrizio Stefani ◽  
Paolo Silvestri

The aim of the present research is to characterize both experimentally and numerically journal bearings with low radial clearances for rotors in small-scale applications (e.g., microgas turbines); their diameter is in the order of ten millimetres, leading to very small dimensional clearances when the typical relative ones (order of 1/1000) are employed; investigating this particular class of journal bearings under static and dynamic loading conditions represents something unexplored. To this goal, a suitable test rig was designed and the performance of its bearings was investigated under steady load. For the sake of comparison, numerical simulations of the lubrication were also performed by means of a simplified model. The original test rig adopted is a commercial rotor kit (RK), but substantial modifications were carried out in order to allow significant measurements. Indeed, the relative radial clearance of RK4 RK bearings is about 2/100, while it is around 1/1000 in industrial bearings. Therefore, the same original RK bearings are employed in this new test rig, but a new shaft was designed to reduce their original clearance. The new custom shaft allows to study bearing behaviour for different clearances, since it is equipped with interchangeable journals. Experimental data obtained by this test rig are then compared with further results of more sophisticated simulations. They were carried out by means of an in-house developed finite element (FEM) code, suitable for thermoelasto-hydrodynamic (TEHD) analysis of journal bearings both in static and dynamic conditions. In this paper, bearing static performances are studied to assess the reliability of the experimental journal location predictions by comparing them with the ones coming from already validated numerical codes. Such comparisons are presented both for large and small clearance bearings of original and modified RKs, respectively. Good agreement is found only for the modified RK equipped with small clearance bearings (relative radial clearance 8/1000), as expected. In comparison with two-dimensional lubrication analysis, three-dimensional simulation improves prediction of journal location and correlation with experimental results.


2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (11) ◽  
pp. 4531-4545 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Zhu ◽  
C. L. Winter ◽  
Z. Wang

Abstract. Computational experiments are performed to evaluate the effects of locally heterogeneous conductivity fields on regional exchanges of water between stream and aquifer systems in the Middle Heihe River basin (MHRB) of northwestern China. The effects are found to be nonlinear in the sense that simulated discharges from aquifers to streams are systematically lower than discharges produced by a base model parameterized with relatively coarse effective conductivity. A similar, but weaker, effect is observed for stream leakage. The study is organized around three hypotheses: (H1) small-scale spatial variations of conductivity significantly affect regional exchanges of water between streams and aquifers in river basins, (H2) aggregating small-scale heterogeneities into regional effective parameters systematically biases estimates of stream–aquifer exchanges, and (H3) the biases result from slow paths in groundwater flow that emerge due to small-scale heterogeneities. The hypotheses are evaluated by comparing stream–aquifer fluxes produced by the base model to fluxes simulated using realizations of the MHRB characterized by local (grid-scale) heterogeneity. Levels of local heterogeneity are manipulated as control variables by adjusting coefficients of variation. All models are implemented using the MODFLOW (Modular Three-dimensional Finite-difference Groundwater Flow Model) simulation environment, and the PEST (parameter estimation) tool is used to calibrate effective conductivities defined over 16 zones within the MHRB. The effective parameters are also used as expected values to develop lognormally distributed conductivity (K) fields on local grid scales. Stream–aquifer exchanges are simulated with K fields at both scales and then compared. Results show that the effects of small-scale heterogeneities significantly influence exchanges with simulations based on local-scale heterogeneities always producing discharges that are less than those produced by the base model. Although aquifer heterogeneities are uncorrelated at local scales, they appear to induce coherent slow paths in groundwater fluxes that in turn reduce aquifer–stream exchanges. Since surface water–groundwater exchanges are critical hydrologic processes in basin-scale water budgets, these results also have implications for water resources management.


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