SHINE: Testing Theories of Coronal Heating and Solar Wind Acceleration with Multi-Messenger Data and Four-Dimension (4D) Forward Modeling

了解日冕的复杂性和演化是预测太阳对地球局部空间环境影响的必要先兆。尽管进行了多年的研究，但负责加热日冕和加速太阳风的基本物理过程仍然未知。该项目将数值模拟和数据分析相结合，以更好地理解这些过程。一名研究生和本科生将得到支持和指导。这项拟议调查的目标是大幅缩小已提出的沿太阳外层大气中封闭和开放磁力线为等离子体提供能量的过程清单。这项工作设计了一个正演模型框架，其中包括尽可能多的过程，所有过程都在平等的基础上，并利用现有的“多信使”数据(即遥感和现场)，对日冕加热和太阳风加速的物理过程的相对贡献施加限制。具体地说，研究包括四个核心任务：(1)建立低日冕EUV和X射线发射的视线正演模型，与所提出的尽可能广泛的加热理论相对应。(2)实现了6种不同的场线外推模式，从光球下边界条件计算日冕磁场。(3)通过对共转相互作用区(CIR)和湍流场线随机游动形成的高分辨率模拟，确定哪些级别的日冕通量管结构可以在行星际空间中被探测到。(4)使用新一代现有代码对开放通量管上的日冕加热和太阳风加速进行自洽建模，该代码现在包括波/湍流和交换重联物理。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Understanding the complexity and evolution of the solar corona is a necessary precursor to being able to predict the Sun’s effects on the Earth’s local space environment. Despite many years of study, the basic physical processes responsible for heating the solar corona and accelerating the solar wind are still not known. This project combines numerical simulations and data analysis to better understand these processes. A graduate student and undergraduate students will be supported and mentored.The goal of the proposed investigation is to substantially narrow down the list of processes that have been suggested for energizing plasma along both closed and open magnetic field lines in the outer solar atmosphere. This work designs a forward-modeling framework that includes as many of the processes as possible, all on equal footing and takes advantage of the available “multi-messenger” data (i.e., both remote-sensing and in situ) to put constraints on the relative contributions of the physical processes responsible for coronal heating and solar wind acceleration. Specifically, the investigation consists of four core tasks: (1) Constructing line-of-sight forward models of EUV and X-ray emission for the low corona, corresponding to as broad a range of proposed heating theories as possible. (2) Implementing six different field-line extrapolation models to compute the coronal magnetic field from photospheric lower boundary conditions. (3) Determining what levels of coronal flux-tube structure can survive to be detectable in interplanetary space, through high-resolution simulations of the formation of corotating interaction regions (CIRs) and turbulent field-line random walk. (4) Self-consistent modeling of coronal heating and solar wind acceleration along open flux tubes using a new generation of an existing code that now includes both wave/turbulence and interchange reconnection physics.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.