A new model for heating of the Solar North Polar Coronal Hole (original) (raw)
This article presents a new model of the North Polar Coronal Hole (NPCH) with the aim of revealing the dissipative/propagative characteristics of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves. We investigate the effects of isotropic viscosity and anisotropic heat conduction on the propagation characteristics of MHD waves in the NPCH. We first model the NPCH by considering differences in the radial direction as well as in the direction perpendicular to the line of sight (los) in temperature, particle number density and non-thermal velocities between plumes and interplume lanes, for the specific case of O VI ions. This model includes parallel and perpendicular (to the magnetic field) heat conduction and viscous dissipation. Next, we derive the dispersion relations for MHD waves in cases of the absence and presence of parallel heat conduction. In the case of the absence of parallel heat conduction, we find that MHD wave dissipation depends strongly on viscosity for modified acoustic and Alfvén waves. The energy flux densities of acoustic waves vary between 10 4.7 and 10 7 erg cm −2 s −1 , while the energy flux densities of Alfvén waves turn out to be between 10 6 and 10 8.6 erg cm −2 s −1. When there is parallel heat conduction, we calculate the damping length-scales and the energy flux densities of magnetoacoustic waves. Our results suggest that modified magnetoacoustic waves may provide a significant source for the observed preferential acceleration and heating of O VI ions, thus coronal plasma heating, and an extra accelerating agent for the fast solar wind in the NPCH, depending on the values of the transport coefficients.