Hunt On Solar Corona

A dark, sensual thriller following the origin of one of the Metabaron's greatest enemies, the Simak!

Pedagogical in style, this book provides insights into plasma behavior valid over twenty orders of magnitude in both time and space. The book assumes that the reader has a basic knowledge of magnetohydrodynamics and explains topics using detailed theoretical analysis supported by discussion of relevant experiments. This comprehensive approach gives the reader an understanding of the essential theoretical ideas and their application to real situations. The book starts by explaining the topological concept of magnetic helicity and then develops a helicity-based model that predicts the ultimate state towards which magnetically-dominated plasmas evolve. The model predicts that no matter how messy or complicated the dynamics, a great range of plasma configurations always self-organize to a unique, simple final state. This self-organization, called relaxation, is a fundamental concept that unifies understanding of spheromaks, solar corona loops, interplanetary magnetic clouds, and astrophysical jets. After establishing why relaxation occurs, the book then examines how relaxation occurs. It shows that relaxation involves a sequence of complex non-equilibrium dynamics including fast self-collimated plasma jets, kink instabilities, magnetic reconnection, and phenomena outside the realm of magnetohydrodynamics. Contents: IntroductionBasic ConceptsMagnetic HelicityRelaxation of an Isolated Configuration to the Taylor StateRelaxation in Driven ConfigurationsThe MHD Energy Principle, Helicity, and Taylor StatesSurvey of Spheromak Formation SchemesClassification of Regimes: An Imperfect Analogy to ThermodynamicsAnalysis of Isolated Cylindrical SpheromaksThe Role of the WallAnalysis of Driven Spheromaks: Strong CouplingHelicity Flow and DynamosConfinement and Transport in SpheromaksSome Important Practical IssuesBasic Diagnostics for SpheromaksApplications of SpheromaksInitial Dynamics Leading to Relaxation: MHD JetsDynamics Associated with Relaxation: Kinks, Rayleigh-Taylor, Hard X-RaysBeyond MHD: Whistler Waves and Fast Magnetic ReconnectionZero-β Models for Solar and Space Phenomena: Helicity, Force-Free EquilibriaFinite-β Models and Experiments for Solar Phenomena: Collimation, Flows, ExpansionBeyond MHD: Extreme Particle Orbits in Helical Magnetic FieldsFinite-β Toroidal Magnetic Cloud ModelAstrophysical Jets, Accretion, Angular Momentum Removal, and Space DynamosAppendices: Vector Identities and OperatorsBessel Orthogonality RelationsCapacitor BanksTransmission Lines, Pulse Forming Networks, and TransformersSelected Formulae Readership: Researchers, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates in plasma physics, solar physics, and astrophysics; mathematicians interested in helicity, topology, and self-organization. Keywords: Magnetohydrodynamics;Magnetic Helicity;Spheromaks;MHD;MHD Jets;Kink;Rayleigh Taylor;Accretion Disk;Astrophysical Jet;Solar Prominence;Solar Corona;Solar Corona Loop;CME;Relative Helicity;Taylor Relaxation;Magnetic Reconnection;Whistler Waves;Hall MHD;Electron MHD;Alfven Waves;Magnetic Clouds;Canonical Angular Momentum;Magnetic BrakingReview: Key Features: Unique, no completing titlesThis new revision contains discussion of dynamics underlying self-organization (Taylor relaxation)This new revision contains updates on spheromak research since 2000

Observational data derived from the world's largest solar telescopes are correlated with theoretical discussions in nuclear and atomic physics by contributors representing a wide range of interests in solar research.

The COSPAR Colloquium on Solar-Terrestrial Magnetic Activity and Space Environment (STMASE) was held in the National Astronomy Observatories of Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) in Beijing, China in September 10-12, 2001. The meeting was focused on five areas of the solar-terrestrial magnetic activity and space environment studies, including study on solar surface magnetism; solar magnetic activity, dynamical response of the heliosphere; space weather prediction; and space environment exploration and monitoring. A hot topic of space research, CMEs, which are widely believed to be the most important phenomenon of the space environment, is discussed in many papers. Other papers show results of observational and theoretical studies toward better understanding of the complicated image of the magnetic coupling between the Sun and the Earth, although little is still known little its physical background. Space weather prediction, which is very important for a modern society expanding into out-space, is another hot topic of space research. However, a long way is still to go to predict exactly when and where a disaster will happen in the space. In that sense, there is much to do for space environment exploration and monitoring. The manuscripts submitted to this Monograph are divided into the following parts: (1) solar surface magnetism, (2) solar magnetic activity, (3) dynamical response of the heliosphere, (4) space environment exploration and monitoring; and (5) space weather prediction. Papers presented in this meeting but not submitted to this Monograph are listed by title as unpublished papers at the end of this book.