Abstract

Invited Talk - Splinter Solar

Friday, 15 September 2023, 16:15   (H 3005)

How small-scale magnetic processes build the solar corona and drive the solar wind

Lakshmi Pradeep Chitta
Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research

Heating of the solar corona to a million Kelvin and the acceleration of the solar wind remain two of the most outstanding problems in stellar astrophysics. There is a growing evidence that magnetic processes on spatial scales of less than 1000 km, operating in the solar atmosphere, are central to solving these problems. In this context, it is important to understand how the magnetic energy from the solar surface is channeled to heat the overlying corona and drive the solar wind. New observations from Solar Orbiter, for the first time, capture surface magnetic structures and coronal features at almost exactly the same high spatial resolution of 200 km. These unprecedented observations reveal a highly dynamic surface magnetic landscape and shed new light on magnetic reconnection, a fundamental astrophysical process, operating on small spatial scales in the solar corona. I will present these new results and discuss implications for the coronal heating and solar wind models.