Solar chromosphere: plasma dynamics and magnetic field configuration revealed by spaceborne instruments

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25800120
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Astronomy
• Research Institution: Nagoya University (2015); Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (2013-2014)
• Principal Investigator: Okamoto Joten 名古屋大学, 宇宙地球環境研究所, 研究員 (70509679)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 太陽観測衛星ひので / 太陽観測衛星IRIS / プロミネンス / コロナ加熱 / 波動 / 振動 / 共鳴吸収 / 彩層

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We have joined efforts to directly detect for the first time a long hypothesised heating mechanism in action in the solar corona, the outer layer of the solar atmosphere. By combining high resolution observations from JAXA's Hinode mission and NASA's IRIS mission, together with state-of-the-art numerical simulations and modelling to guide interpretation, we have managed to detect and identify the observational signatures of resonant absorption, a wave-related mechanism of energy conversion, thought to play an important role in the so-called "coronal heating problem", one of the most important unsolved astrophysical problems for mankind.

Free Research Field

太陽物理学