The heating of coronal holes and the acceleration of the solar wind

Project Information

Grant agreement ID: FMBI982880

Project closed

Start date 1 July 1998

End date 30 June 2001

Funded under

• Specific research and technological development programme in the field of the training and mobility of researchers, 1994-1998

Total cost No data

EU contribution No data

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS
United Kingdom

Objective

Research objectives and content
Two key unsolved problems in Solar Physics, of central importance for astrophysics as a whole, are (i) how is the Sun's corona heated to extremely high temperatures compared with the surface values and (ii) how is the solar wind accelerated away from the solar surface. We plan a major attack as follows. (i! Coronal Heating A wave heating mechanism is needed to heat the open magnetic field regions of coronal holes. We shall investigate in detail a particulalrly promising mechanism, namely phase-mixing of Alfven waves.
(ii) Acceleration of the Solar Wind We shall model, in detail, the new observations from the SOHO satellite of coronal bullets, plumes and coronal mass ejections.
Training content (objective, benefit and expected impact)
(i) High quality training in techniques for doing independent research at one of the main MHD research centres in the world, which has successfully trained 44 PhD students over 2() years. (ii) Leaming techniques for analytical modelling, non-linear numelical modelling and comparing with space observations.
(iii) Attending high-level postgraduate courses on non-linear methods, MHD and computational techniques. (iv) Presentillg the results orally at major inlel-nalional scientitic conferences and summer schools. (v) Compleling a major work of scientific reseal-cll 011 a fundamental problem.
Links with industry / industnal relevance (22)

Fields of science

• engineering and technology › mechanical engineering › vehicle engineering › aerospace engineering › satellite technology
• natural sciences › physical sciences › astronomy › galactic astronomy › solar physics
• natural sciences › physical sciences › astronomy › astrophysics

Programme(s)

• FP4-TMR - Specific research and technological development programme in the field of the training and mobility of researchers, 1994-1998

Topic(s)

• 0302 - Post-doctoral research training grants
• TP08 - Astronomy, Astrophysics, Cosmology

Call for proposal

Data not available

Funding Scheme

RGI - Research grants (individual fellowships)

Coordinator

UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS

• EU contribution: No data
• Address: North Haugh ; KY169SS ST ANDREWS ; United Kingdom
• Total cost: No data