Quantifying how Surface Complexity Influences Properties of the Solar Corona and Solar Wind

TL;DR

This study investigates how the spatial resolution of surface magnetic boundary conditions affects the modeling of the solar corona and wind, revealing that higher resolution captures more small-scale flux and heating effects.

Contribution

It quantifies the impact of surface magnetic resolution on coronal heating and magnetic field structure using spherical harmonic decomposition in data-constrained models.

Findings

40% more heating in high-resolution simulations

Small-scale flux significantly enhances coronal heating

Strong correlation between magnetic structure and heating rate

Abstract

The Sun's magnetic field is a key driver in coronal heating and consequently solar wind acceleration. Remote measurement of the photosphere provides the magnetic surface boundary condition necessary for data-constrained 3D global coronal models. With one such model, we explore how the spatial resolution of the surface boundary condition influences the global properties of the magnetic field and coronal heating. Using spherical harmonic decomposition, we quantify how three different resolution simulations vary in the low and middle corona. Through examination of the magnetic field, the squashing factor, and the heating rate, we demonstrate that small-scale photospheric magnetic flux enhances heating across spatial regimes. We calculate 40% more heating in our best resolution simulation as compared to our base resolution. We describe a strong correlation between the structure of the magnetic field and structure of the heating rate in the low corona across resolutions. These results provide key information as to what more efficient, low-resolution models might inherently miss. This can provide context to incorporate the effects of unresolvable features in future modeling efforts.