We investigated an emerging magnetic loop dynamically formed on the Sun, which has the effective footpoint heating source that may play a key role in heating a solar atmosphere with free magnetic energy in it. It is suggested that the heating source could be related to local compression of a plasma in the emerging loop by means of Lorentz force, which converts the magnetic energy to the internal energy of the plasma that is used to reaccelerate a decelerated downflow along the loop, eventually generating the source when the kinetic energy of the downflow is thermalized. By analyzing very high-cadense data obtained from a magnetohydrodynamic simulation, we demonstrate how the local compression is activated to trigger the generation of the heating source. This reveals a characteristic of the emerging loop that experiences a dynamic loop-loop interaction, which causes the local compression and makes the plasma gain the internal energy converted from the magnetic energy in the atmosphere. What determines the characteristic that could distinguish an illuminated emerging loop from a nonilluminated one is discussed.

To seek an atmospheric heating mechanism operating on the Sun we investigated a heating source generated by a downflow, both of which may arise in a magnetic loop dynamically formed on the Sun via flux emergence. Since an observation shows that the illumination of evolving magnetic loops under the dynamic formation occurs sporadically and intermittently, we performed a magnetohydrodynamic simulation of flux emergence to obtain a high-cadence simulated data, where temperature enhancement was identified at the footpoint of an evolving magnetic loop. Unlike a rigid magnetic loop with a confined flow in it, the evolving loop in a low plasma β atmosphere is subjected to local compression by the magnetic field surrounding the loop, which drives a strong supersonic downflow generating an effective footpoint heating source in it. This may introduce an energy conversion system to the magnetized atmosphere of the Sun, in which the free magnetic energy causing the compression via Lorentz force is converted to the flow energy, and eventually reduced to the thermal energy. Dynamic and thermodynamic states involved in the system are explained.

We investigate ow and magnetic structure of a solar prominence with a focus on how the magnetic eld originally determined by subsurface dynamics gives rise to the structure. We perform a magnetohydrodynamic simulation that reproduces the self-consistent evolution of a ow and the magnetic eld passing freely through the solar surface. By analyzing Lagrangian displacements of magnetized plasma elements, we demonstrate the ow structure that is naturally incorporated to the magnetic structure of the prominence formed via dynamic interaction between the ow and the magnetic eld. Our results explain a diverging ow on a U-loop, a counterclockwise downdraft along a rotating eld line, acceleration and deceleration of a down ow along an S-loop, and partial emergence of a W-loop, which may play key roles in determining structural properties of the prominence.

We demonstrate the subsurface origin of the observed evolution of the solar active region 10930 (AR10930) associated with merging and breakup of magnetic polarity regions at the solar surface. We performed a magnetohydrodynamic simulation of an emerging magnetic flux tube whose field-line twist is asymmetrically distributed along its axis, which is a key to merging and fragmentation in this active region. While emerging into the surface, the flux tube is subjected to partial splitting of its weakly twisted portion, forming separate polarity regions at the solar surface. As emergence proceeds, these separate polarity regions start to merge and then break up, while in the corona sigmoidal structures form and a solar eruption occurs. We discuss what physical processes could be involved in the characteristic evolution of an active region magnetic field that leads to the formation of a sunspot surrounded by satellite polarity regions.

We present a new method for solving an inverse problem of flux emergence which transports subsurface magnetic flux from an inaccessible interior to the surface where magnetic structures may be observed to form, such as solar active regions. To make a quantitative evaluation of magnetic structures having various characteristics, we derive physical properties of subsurface magnetic field that characterize those structures formed through flux emergence. The derivation is performed by inversion from an evolutionary relation between two observables obtained at the surface, emerged magnetic flux and injected magnetic helicity, the former of which provides scale information while the latter represents the configuration of magnetic field.