Propagation and damping of Alfven waves in low solar atmosphere

Abstract

Propagation and damping of Alfven waves in the inner solar corona are studied using a 2D magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulation code with realistic density and temperature profiles in a uniform background magnetic field. A linear wave is launched by ascribing a sinusoidal fluid motion at about 1000 km from the surface of the Sun, which is shown to generate Alfvenic wave motions along the height. The 2D MHD simulation shows that for B-0 approximate to 3G, Alfven waves of about 10(-2) Hz with an infinite horizontal length-scale can penetrate into the corona, transferring about 90 per cent their energies. This raises the possibility that the wave can be dissipated by various physical processes. The results show that the propagating wave can effectively damp via viscosity in the lower region of the corona, if a horizontal scale of granular size is incorporated.