An analysis of heat transfer in the solar photosphere and chromosphere

Abstract

The prevailing heat transfer processes—convection in the photosphere and wave propagation in the chromosphere—are principally different. Despite this fact, there is a direct link between these processes: it is precisely convective photospheric flows that excite intense Alfven waves in the chromosphere. A physical model explaining the effect of strong chromospheric and coronal heating is improved in this work. The model is based on synchronous propagation and interaction in the chromosphere of photospheric spicules and Alfven waves. The results of observations of the last decade and the analytical solution of the equations of magnetohydrodynamics are used. It is established that the heating of the solar atmospheric plasma proceeds not in the corona but in the upper chromosphere.