Programme by Session

As a part of project designed to address the question, “what are the physical mechanisms that supply the solar chromosphere with mass?” we present 3D radiation-MHD simulations of the Sun, from the corona to the convection zone, using the Bifrost code with the new “corks” module.

The corks module allows us to insert passive tracer particles into our simulations and then inspect the experiment from a Lagrangian viewpoint, as well as the Cartesian solution provided by the underlying method. Tracer particles are injected and pruned from the simulation in order to avoid voids and gluts of corks that results form compressive and expanding flows.

In this part of the project, we consider the tracer particles in fibrils at a given time of the simulation, then trace these particles both forward and backward in time, in order to analyse the origins and destinations of this plasma, and thereby address the posed question. We present our findings on the changes to mass density and temperature of the plasma elements over time, and link the journey of this plasma to the forces acting on the fibrils, with a focus on the effects and amount of impact that shocks impart upon the material contained in fibrils. We also evaluate the effect of varying the frequency of saved data snapshots upon our ability to identify and analyse the effects of shocks.