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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 253 records · Page 14
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1990

Wave heating in magnetic flux tubes

The bright chromosphere in the quiet sun is confined to magnetic elements (flux tubes), which are located in the interior of the supergranulation cells and within the network that surrounds the cells. The paper discusses the heating of the gas in the magnetic elements of the cell interior. These intranetwork flux tubes are closely associated with bright points, which are heated by large-amplitude compressive waves with periods near the acoustic cutoff that travel outward from the photosphere and dissipate their energy in the chromosphere. The energy flux of these long-period waves appears to be sufficient for the heating of the low and middle chromosphere in the bright points.

Kalkofen, Wolfgang↗
NASA NTRS2001

Helioseismic Holography and a Study of the Process of Magnetic Flux Disappearance in Canceling Bipoles

Project 1: We have developed and applied a technique of helioseismic holography along the lines of originally set out in our proposal. The result of the application of this diagnostic technique to solar activity and the quiet Sun has produced a number of important discoveries: (1) acoustic moats surrounding sunspots; (2) acoustic glories surround large active regions; (3) acoustic condensations beneath active regions; and (4) temporally-resolve acoustic images of a solar flare. These results have been published in a series of papers in the Astrophysical Journal. We think that helioseismic holography is now established as the most powerful and discriminating diagnostic in local helioseismology. Project 2: We conducted a collaborative observational program to define the physical character and magnetic geometry of canceling magnetic bipoles aimed at determining if the cancellation process is the result of submergence of magnetic fields. This assessment is based on ground-based observations combining photospheric and chromospheric magnetograms from NSO/KP, BBSO, and SOHO-MDI, and EUV and X-ray images from SOHO EIT/CDS, Yohkoh/SXT, and TRACE. Our study involves the analysis of data taken during three observing campaigns to define the height structure of canceling bipoles inferred from magnetic field and intensity images, and how this varies with time. We find that some canceling bipoles can be explained by the submerge of their magnetic flux. A paper on the results of this analysis will be presented at an upcoming scientific meeting and be written up for publication.

Lindsey, Charles↗
NASA NTRS2014

High-Energy X-Ray Detection of G359.89-0.08 (SGR A-E): Magnetic Flux Tube Emission Powered by Cosmic Rays?

We report the first detection of high-energy X-ray (E (is) greater than 10 keV) emission from the Galactic center non-thermal filament G359.89−0.08 (Sgr A−E) using data acquired with the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR). The bright filament was detected up to approximately 50 keV during a NuSTAR Galactic center monitoring campaign. The featureless power-law spectrum with a photon index gamma approximately equals 2.3 confirms a non-thermal emission mechanism. The observed flux in the 3-79 keV band is F(sub X) = (2.0 +/- 0.1) × 10(exp -12)erg cm(-2) s(-1) , corresponding to an unabsorbed X-ray luminosity L(sub X) = (2.6+/-0.8)×10(exp 34) erg s(-1) assuming a distance of 8.0 kpc. Based on theoretical predictions and observations, we conclude that Sgr A−E is unlikely to be a pulsar wind nebula (PWN) or supernova remnant-molecular cloud (SNR-MC) interaction, as previously hypothesized. Instead, the emission could be due to a magnetic flux tube which traps TeV electrons. We propose two possible TeV electron sources: old PWNe (up to (is) approximately 100 kyr) with low surface brightness and radii up to (is) approximately 30 pc or MCs illuminated by cosmic rays (CRs) from CR accelerators such as SNRs or Sgr A*.

X-rays: individual↗
NASA NTRS2021

Magnetic Reconnection in a Sheared Magnetic Flux Tube: Slippage Versus Tearing

The process of magnetic reconnection in a flux tube can occur in a time-stationary fashion as slippage reconnection or in a time-dependent manner based on, for example, the tearing instability. However, it is not well known under which conditions a system can sustain slippage reconnection. Likewise, it is unclear whether systems can exhibit slippage reconnection and time-dependent reconnection simultaneously. In order to investigate these questions, we employ a set of 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulation. Using these simulations, we model a twisted flux tube with a spatially localized resistive region in the center of the simulation box, and an applied driver on one end plane of the simulation box. As a result, the Poynting flux injected at the boundary propagates to the resistive region and dissipates there. If the driver is nearly circular, we find a predominance of slippage reconnection, which decouples the applied driver entirely from one half of the flux tube. Second, a tearing-like instability occurs with slippage reconnection in the resistive region when the resistivity is strong enough and the cross section of the flux tube, as defined by the shape of the applied velocity perturbation, is elliptical enough. In this case we find the surprising feature that magnetic field perturbation generated by the tearing-like instability radiates away from the resistive region to influence the entire flux tube shape.

Hidetaka Kuniyoshi↗
DOE OSTI2017

Brightness of Solar Magnetic Elements As a Function of Magnetic Flux at High Spatial Resolution

We investigate the relationship between the photospheric magnetic field of small-scale magnetic elements in the quiet-Sun (QS) at disk center and the brightness at 214, 300, 313, 388, 397, and 525.02 nm. To this end, we analyzed spectropolarimetric and imaging time series acquired simultaneously by the Imaging Magnetograph eXperiment magnetograph and the SuFI filter imager on board the balloon-borne observatory SUNRISE during its first science flight in 2009, with high spatial and temporal resolution. We find a clear dependence of the contrast in the near ultraviolet and the visible on the line-of-sight component of the magnetic field, B {sub LOS}, which is best described by a logarithmic model. This function effectively represents the relationship between the Ca ii H-line emission and B {sub LOS} and works better than the power-law fit adopted by previous studies. This, along with the high contrast reached at these wavelengths, will help with determining the contribution of small-scale elements in the QS to the irradiance changes for wavelengths below 388 nm. At all wavelengths, including the continuum at 525.40 nm, the intensity contrast does not decrease with increasing B {sub LOS}. This result also strongly supports the fact that SUNRISE has resolved small strong magnetic field elements in the internetwork, resulting in constant contrasts for large magnetic fields in our continuum contrast at 525.40 nm versus the B {sub LOS} scatterplot, unlike the turnover obtained in previous observational studies. This turnover is due to the intermixing of the bright magnetic features with the dark intergranular lanes surrounding them.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Direct evidence of microstructure dependence of magnetic flux trapping in niobium

Abstract Elemental type-II superconducting niobium is the material of choice for superconducting radiofrequency cavities used in modern particle accelerators, light sources, detectors, sensors, and quantum computing architecture. An essential challenge to increasing energy efficiency in rf applications is the power dissipation due to residual magnetic field that is trapped during the cool down process due to incomplete magnetic field expulsion. New SRF cavity processing recipes that use surface doping techniques have significantly increased their cryogenic efficiency. However, the performance of SRF Nb accelerators still shows vulnerability to a trapped magnetic field. In this manuscript, we report the observation of a direct link between flux trapping and incomplete flux expulsion with spatial variations in microstructure within the niobium. Fine-grain recrystallized microstructure with an average grain size of 10–50 µm leads to flux trapping even with a lack of dislocation structures in grain interiors. Larger grain sizes beyond 100–400 µm do not lead to preferential flux trapping, as observed directly by magneto-optical imaging. While local magnetic flux variations imaged by magneto-optics provide clarity on a microstructure level, bulk variations are also indicated by variations in pinning force curves with sequential heat treatment studies. The key results indicate that complete control of the niobium microstructure will help produce higher performance superconducting resonators with reduced rf losses 1 related to the magnetic flux trapping.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2015

Role of Ion Kinetic Physics in the Interaction of Magnetic Flux Ropes

To explain many natural magnetized plasma phenomena, it is crucial to understand how rates of collisionless magnetic reconnection scale in large magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) scale systems. Simulations of isolated current sheets conclude such rates are independent of system size and can be reproduced by the Hall-MHD model, but neglect sheet formation and coupling to MHD scales. Here in this study, it is shown for the problem of flux-rope merging, which includes this formation and coupling, that the Hall-MHD model fails to reproduce the kinetic results. The minimum sufficient model must retain ion kinetic effects, which set the ion diffusion region geometry and give time-averaged rates that reduce significantly with system size, leading to different global evolution in large systems.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

ON THE ROLE OF REPETITIVE MAGNETIC RECONNECTIONS IN EVOLUTION OF MAGNETIC FLUX ROPES IN SOLAR CORONA

Parker's magnetostatic theorem, extended to astrophysical magnetofluids with large magnetic Reynolds number, supports ceaseless regeneration of current sheets and, hence, spontaneous magnetic reconnections recurring in time. Consequently, a scenario is possible where the repeated reconnections provide an autonomous mechanism governing emergence of coherent structures in astrophysical magnetofluids. In this work, such a scenario is explored by performing numerical computations commensurate with the magnetostatic theorem. In particular, the computations explore the evolution of a flux rope governed by repeated reconnections in a magnetic geometry resembling bipolar loops of solar corona. The revealed morphology of the evolution process—including onset and ascent of the rope, reconnection locations, and the associated topology of the magnetic field lines—agrees with observations, and thus substantiates physical realizability of the advocated mechanism.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS2018

Precursors of Magnetic Flux Emergence in the Moat Flows of Active Region AR12673

We report on observations of magnetic disturbances in active region AR12673 between 1 and 3 September 2017 seen as a disruption of the moat flow several hours before the onset of strong flux emergence near the main sunspot. The moat flow is commonly known as a radially oriented strong outflow of photospheric plasma surrounding sunspots, which ends abruptly and thus shapes an annular pattern around the penumbra. Using highly accurate methods of tracking this photospheric flow applied to Solar Dynamics Observatory/Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager data, we are able to describe the evolution of the moat surrounding the main sunspot of AR 12673. We find that several hours before the emergence of strong magnetic flux near the main sunspot, the moat boundaries are broken at these very same locations. This behavior is observed both on 1 and 3 September. There is no such behavior observed in the absence of flux emergence. These observational results pose the question of how often they occur in other active regions and whether the disruption of the moat flow might be, like in this case, an indication of impending enhanced magnetic activity or simply a coincidental event.

Attie, R.↗
DOE OSTI2017

Magnetic Flux Cancellation as the Origin of Solar Quiet-region Pre-jet Minifilaments

We investigate the origin of 10 solar quiet-region pre-jet minifilaments , using EUV images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory ( SDO )/Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) and magnetograms from the SDO Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI). We recently found that quiet-region coronal jets are driven by minifilament eruptions, where those eruptions result from flux cancellation at the magnetic neutral line under the minifilament. Here, we study the longer-term origin of the pre-jet minifilaments themselves. We find that they result from flux cancellation between minority-polarity and majority-polarity flux patches. In each of 10 pre-jet regions, we find that opposite-polarity patches of magnetic flux converge and cancel, with a flux reduction of 10%–40% from before to after the minifilament appears. For our 10 events, the minifilaments exist for periods ranging from 1.5 hr to 2 days before erupting to make a jet. Apparently, the flux cancellation builds a highly sheared field that runs above and traces the neutral line, and the cool transition region plasma minifilament forms in this field and is suspended in it. We infer that the convergence of the opposite-polarity patches results in reconnection in the low corona that builds a magnetic arcade enveloping the minifilament in its core, and that the continuing flux cancellation at the neutral line finally destabilizes the minifilament field so that it erupts and drives the production of a coronal jet. Thus, our observations strongly support that quiet-region magnetic flux cancellation results in both the formation of the pre-jet minifilament and its jet-driving eruption.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Tracking the Magnetic Flux in and Around Sunspots

We have developed a procedure for tracking sunspots observed by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on the Solar Dynamics Observatory and for making curvature-corrected space/time maps of the associated line-of-sight magnetic field and continuum intensity. We apply this procedure to 36 sunspots, each observed continuously for nine days around its central meridian passage time, and find that the proper motions separate into two distinct components depending on their speeds. Fast (∼3–5 km s{sup −1}) motions, comparable to Evershed flows, are produced by weak vertical fluctuations of the horizontal canopy field and recur on a timescale of 12–20 min. Slow (∼0.3–0.5 km s{sup −1}) motions diverge from a sunspot-centered ring whose location depends on the size of the sunspot, occurring in the mid-penumbra for large sunspots and at the outer edge of the penumbra for small sunspots. The slow ingoing features are contracting spokes of a quasi-vertical field of umbral polarity. These inflows disappear when the sunspot loses its penumbra, and may be related to inward-moving penumbral grain. The slow outgoing features may have either polarity depending on whether they originate from quasi-vertical fields of umbral polarity or from the outer edge of the canopy. When a sunspot decays, the penumbra and canopy disappear, and the moat becomes filled with slow outflows of umbral polarity. We apply our procedure to decaying sunspots, to long-lived sunspots, and to numerical simulations of a long-lived sunspot by Rempel.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1984

Downstream properties of magnetic flux transfer events

Attention is given to the downstream evolution of the field line tubes known as 'flux transfer events' (FTEs), whose magnetic field and plasma properties are distinct from those of the nearby unmerged magnetosheath and magnetosphere field lines. After the FTE has moved 200 earth radii down the tail, its drained portion reaches 25 earth radii radially outward from the tail boundary. It is suggested that most multiple crossings of the tail boundary observed by spacecraft are encounters with tailward-moving FTEs, thereby explaining both the behavior of boundary normals during multiple crossings and how the sign of the IMF causes the observed dawn-dusk asymmetries in the thickness of the magnetotail boundary layer.

Sibeck, D. G.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Cross-tail magnetic flux ropes as observed by the GEOTAIL spacecraft

Ten transient magnetic structures in Earth's magnetotail, as observed in GEOTAIL measurements, selected for early 1993 (at (-) X(sub GSM) = 90 - 130 Earth radii), are shown to have helical magnetic field configurations similar to those of interplanetary magnetic clouds at 1 AU but smaller in size by a factor of approximately = 700. Such structures are shown to be well approximated by a comprehensive magnetic force-free flux-rope model. For this limited set of 10 events the rope axes are seen to be typically aligned with the Y(sub GSM) axis and the average diameter of these structures is approximately = 15 Earth radii.

Lepping, R. P.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Magnetic Flux Cancelation as the Buildup and Trigger Mechanism for CME-Producing Eruptions in Two Small Active Regions

We follow two small, magnetically isolated CME-producing solar active regions (ARs) from the time of their emergence until several days later, when their core regions erupt to produce the CMEs. In both cases, magnetograms show: (a) following an initial period where the poles of the emerging regions separate from each other, the poles then reverse direction and start to retract inward; (b) during the retraction period, flux cancelation occurs along the main neutral line of the regions, (c) this cancelation builds the sheared core field/flux rope that eventually erupts to make the CME. In the two cases, respectively 30% and 50% of the maximum flux of the region cancels prior to the eruption. Recent studies indicate that solar coronal jets frequently result from small-scale filaments eruptions, with those "minifilament" eruptions also being built up and triggered by cancelation of magnetic flux. Together, the small-AR eruptions here and the coronal jet results suggest that isolated bipolar regions tend to erupt when some threshold fraction, perhaps in the range of 50%, of the region's maximum flux has canceled. Our observed erupting filaments/flux ropes form at sites of flux cancelation, in agreement with previous observations. Thus, the recent finding that minifilaments that erupt to form jets also form via flux cancelation is further evidence that minifilaments are small-scale versions of the long-studied full-sized filaments.

Sterling, Alphonse C.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Magnetic Flux Cancelation as the Buildup and Trigger Mechanism for CME-Producing Eruptions in two Small Active Regions

We follow two small, magnetically isolated CME-producing solar active regions (ARs) from the time of their emergence until the time that their core regions erupt to produce the CMEs several days later. In both cases, magnetograms show: (a) following an initial period where the poles of the emerging regions separate from each other, the poles then reverse direction and start to retract inward; (b) during the retraction period, flux cancelation occurs along the main neutral line of the regions, (c) this cancelation builds the sheared core field/flux rope that eventually erupts to make the CME. In the two cases, respectively 30% and 50% of the maximum flux of the region cancels prior to the eruption. Recent studies indicate that solar coronal jets frequently result from small-scale filaments eruptions, with those “minifilament” eruptions also being built up and triggered by cancelation of magnetic flux. Together, the small-AR eruptions here and the coronal jet results suggest that isolated bipolar regions tend to erupt before or when a threshold of roughly 50% of the region’s maximum flux has canceled. Our observed erupting filaments/flux ropes form at sites of flux cancelation, in agreement with previous observations. Thus, the recent finding that minifilaments that erupt to form jets also form via flux cancelation is further evidence that minifilaments are small-scale versions of the long-studied full-sized filaments.

Sterling, Alphonse C.↗
NASA NTRS2019

Magnetic Flux Cancelation as the Buildup and Trigger Mechanism for CME-Producing Eruptions in Two Small Active Regions

We follow two small, magnetically isolated CME (Coronal Mass Ejection)-producing solar active regions (ARs) from the time of their emergence until several days later, when their core regions erupt to produce the CMEs. In both cases, magnetograms show: (a) following an initial period where the poles of the emerging regions separate from each other, the poles then reverse direction and start to retract inward; (b) during the retraction period, flux cancelation occurs along the main neutral line of the regions, (c) this cancelation builds the sheared core field/flux rope that eventually erupts to make the CME. In the two cases, respectively 30 percent and 50 percent of the maximum flux of the region cancels prior to the eruption. Recent studies indicate that solar coronal jets frequently result from small-scale filaments eruptions (Sterling et al. 2015), with those “minifilament” eruptions also being built up and triggered by cancelation of magnetic flux (Panesar et al. 2016). Together, the small-AR eruptions here and the coronal jet results suggest that isolated bipolar regions tend to erupt when some threshold fraction, perhaps in the range of 50 percent, of the region’s maximum flux has canceled. Our observed erupting filaments/flux ropes form at sites of flux cancelation, in agreement with previous observations. Thus, the recent finding that minifilaments that erupt to form jets also form via flux cancelation is further evidence that minifilaments are small-scale versions of the long-studied full-sized filaments. (Details are in Sterling et al. 2018, ApJ, 864, 68.) Supported by NASA's Heliophysics Guest Investigators (HGI) Program and the MSFC (Marshall Space Flight Center)/Hinode project.

Sterling, Alphonse C.↗