Testing Alfv\'en wave propagation in a "realistic" set-up of the solar atmosphere

TL;DR

This study uses radiative magneto-hydrodynamic simulations to investigate how Alfvén waves propagate and dissipate in a realistic solar atmosphere model, revealing dependence on magnetic Prandtl number and forcing.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive simulation setup of the solar atmosphere to analyze Alfvén wave behavior with varying magnetic Prandtl numbers and forcing conditions.

Findings

Wave propagation depends on magnetic Prandtl number and wave number.

Localized coronal heating occurs at magnetic Prandtl number of unity.

Wave dissipation mechanisms vary with simulation parameters.

Abstract

We present a radiative magneto-hydrodynamic simulation set-up using the PENCIL CODE to study the generation, propagation and dissipation of Alfv\'en waves in the solar atmosphere which includes a convective layer, photosphere below and chromosphere, transition region and the corona above. We prepare a setup of steady-state solar convection where the imposed external magnetic field also has reached the final value gradually starting from a very small value. From that state, we start several simulations by varying the magnetic Prandtl number and the forcing strengths. We find the propagation characteristics of waves excited in this simulation run depend strongly on the magnetic Prandtl number and the wave number of the forcing. For magnetic Prandtl number of unity, we obtain localized heating in the corona due to shock dissipation.