Magnetohydrostatic modeling of the solar atmosphere

Abstract

Understanding structures and evolutions of the magnetic fields and plasma in multiple layers on the Sun is very important. A force-free magnetic field which is an accurate approximation of the solar corona due to the low plasma β has been widely studied and used to model the coronal magnetic structure. While the force-freeness assumption is well satisfied in the solar corona, the lower atmosphere is not force-free given the high plasma β. Therefore, a magnetohydrostatic (MHS) equilibrium which takes into account plasma forces, such as pressure gradient and gravitational force, is considered to be more appropriate to describe the lower atmosphere. This paper reviews both analytical and numerical extrapolation methods based on the MHS assumption for calculating the magnetic fields and plasma in the solar atmosphere from measured magnetograms.