Probing the thermodynamics and kinematics of solar coronal streamers

Abstract

We present the results of a resistive magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model of an equatorially confined streamer belt using observational constraints for the heating and acceleration of the solar wind. To initiate the 2.5 dimensional MHD calculations, we used the Potential Field Source Surface model of the coronal magnetic field configuration with the boundary conditions at the photosphere specified by the National Solar Observatory/GONG magnetogram data. Calculations were performed for the fully thermal conductive model with observationally constrained heat flux, qeff, and the effective temperature, T eff, derived from the semi-empirical steady-state two-dimensional model of the solar corona. We compared the results of the model to a polytropic solution (polytropic index γ = 1.05), and demonstrate that our MHD model is in better agreement with reconstructed density and observed flow velocity than the polytropic model for the coronal streamer structure observed during 2008 February 1-13 by the COR1 coronagraph on board the STEREO spacecraft. © 2011. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.