3D MHD simulations of emerging flux and
associated reconnection
Hiroaki Isobe, Takehiro Miyagoshi, Kazunari Shibata,
and Takaaki Yokoyama
Emerging flux plays important role in the energy accumulation and
the trigger of flares and coronal mass ejections. It also has some
information of the structure of the magnetic field below the
photosphere. Hence it is obviously one of the principal targets of
Solar-B observations.
We carried out three-dimensional MHD simulations of
an emerging flux region with high resolution using the unprecedented
computational power of the Earth Simulator, a vector-parallel super
computer installed at the Earth Simulator Center.
The main results are summarized as follows:
(1) Filamentary structure similar to an arch filament system is
spontaneously formed in the emerging flux due to the magnetic
Rayleigh-Taylor instability.
(2) Filamentary current sheets are formed in the emerging flux as a result
of the nonlinear development of the magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor instability.
This naturally explains the intermittent heating of emerging
flux regions observed in EUV images.
(3) Magnetic reconnection between the emerging flux and the coronal field
occurs in spatially intermittent way, because of the interchanging of
the current sheet due to the Rayleigh-Taylor instability.
Correspondence
Hiroaki Isobe (isobe@kwasan.kyoto-u.ac.jp), Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of Tokyo
presentation
invited