The combined interplay of the Sun's complex magnetic field and ionized hot plasma provides a variety of exotic plasma dynamics, including wave processes in its atmosphere at diverse spatio-temporal and spectral scales. Various observatories have been commissioned over the last several decades, on the ground and in space, that have contributed to a significantly improved understanding of the energy and mass transport processes in the solar atmosphere. In particular, major developments in the understanding of the triggering mechanisms of large-scale solar eruptive phenomena (e.g., solar flares and coronal mass ejections), the associated physical processes observed at multi-wavelength emissions ranging from X-rays to the radio waves, and their space weather effects.
Alongside the development of modern age telescopes and their backend instruments for observing the Sun, there have also been significant developments and refinements in the theory of solar magnetic waves, instabilities, global and local magnetic fields and their energy build-up/release processes (either via wave processes or via spontaneous/forced reconnection), as well as eruptive phenomena in the framework of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). These advancement in observations, coupled with theory, have resulted in new scientific and advances in the field of Solar Physics. The developments have laid the groundwork for upcoming ultra-high resolution/new generation observatories (e.g., 4m-EST; 4m-DKIST; 2m-NLST; Aditya-L1; Parker's Probe; Solar Orbiter, etc) to understand the coupling of various layers of the solar atmosphere, their localized energy/mass transport processes, physical mechanisms behind eruptive phenomena and space weather. These massive data, once assimilated, will pave the way to realistic MHD numerical simulations, whose results in turn can be compared to observations.
This Research Topic provides an opportunity for solar physicists to publish Review and Original Research articles on the theme of ‘Data-driven MHD: Novel Applications to the Solar Atmosphere’. We solicit articles that bring cutting edge observational data and related MHD modelling together to answer/clarify fundamental but focussed issues of the solar atmosphere. The aim is to bring new insights into the solar and heliospheric physics community, especially when the era of ultra-high resolution observations are on our horizon. Key themes include, but are not limited to:
(i) Energy and mass transport candidates (e.g., waves and plasma reconnection) and their role in the localized heating and mass transport in the various layers of the solar atmosphere using the MHD approximation;
(ii) Origin and transport processes in magnetic flux tubes (e.g., various chromospheric jets, spicules, and coronal jets);
(iii) The role of MHD waves in solar wind source and acceleration regions;
(iv) Active region dynamics, their modelling in the framework of MHD;
(v) MHD oscillations and refined solar magneto-seismology (SMS) using novel photospheric, chromospheric, transition region and coronal observations;
(vi) Modelling large-scale solar eruptive phenomena and their space weather aspects.
The combined interplay of the Sun's complex magnetic field and ionized hot plasma provides a variety of exotic plasma dynamics, including wave processes in its atmosphere at diverse spatio-temporal and spectral scales. Various observatories have been commissioned over the last several decades, on the ground and in space, that have contributed to a significantly improved understanding of the energy and mass transport processes in the solar atmosphere. In particular, major developments in the understanding of the triggering mechanisms of large-scale solar eruptive phenomena (e.g., solar flares and coronal mass ejections), the associated physical processes observed at multi-wavelength emissions ranging from X-rays to the radio waves, and their space weather effects.
Alongside the development of modern age telescopes and their backend instruments for observing the Sun, there have also been significant developments and refinements in the theory of solar magnetic waves, instabilities, global and local magnetic fields and their energy build-up/release processes (either via wave processes or via spontaneous/forced reconnection), as well as eruptive phenomena in the framework of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). These advancement in observations, coupled with theory, have resulted in new scientific and advances in the field of Solar Physics. The developments have laid the groundwork for upcoming ultra-high resolution/new generation observatories (e.g., 4m-EST; 4m-DKIST; 2m-NLST; Aditya-L1; Parker's Probe; Solar Orbiter, etc) to understand the coupling of various layers of the solar atmosphere, their localized energy/mass transport processes, physical mechanisms behind eruptive phenomena and space weather. These massive data, once assimilated, will pave the way to realistic MHD numerical simulations, whose results in turn can be compared to observations.
This Research Topic provides an opportunity for solar physicists to publish Review and Original Research articles on the theme of ‘Data-driven MHD: Novel Applications to the Solar Atmosphere’. We solicit articles that bring cutting edge observational data and related MHD modelling together to answer/clarify fundamental but focussed issues of the solar atmosphere. The aim is to bring new insights into the solar and heliospheric physics community, especially when the era of ultra-high resolution observations are on our horizon. Key themes include, but are not limited to:
(i) Energy and mass transport candidates (e.g., waves and plasma reconnection) and their role in the localized heating and mass transport in the various layers of the solar atmosphere using the MHD approximation;
(ii) Origin and transport processes in magnetic flux tubes (e.g., various chromospheric jets, spicules, and coronal jets);
(iii) The role of MHD waves in solar wind source and acceleration regions;
(iv) Active region dynamics, their modelling in the framework of MHD;
(v) MHD oscillations and refined solar magneto-seismology (SMS) using novel photospheric, chromospheric, transition region and coronal observations;
(vi) Modelling large-scale solar eruptive phenomena and their space weather aspects.