This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 771310)
Overview
The research group PI2FA “Partial Ionisation: Two-Fluid Approach” has been created in September 2018 within the framework of the Consolidator Grant (CoG) that the European Research Council (ERC) awarded to Dr. Elena Khomenko.
PI2FA project aims to advance our understanding of the magnetised solar chromosphere under a promising approach based on the multi-fluid plasma theory.
Chromosphere is the boundary layer between the interior and exterior of the Sun, and the origins of the coronal heating are believed to be routed there.
PI2FA project will create and apply numerical tools for realistic multi-dimensional modelling of the partially ionized chromospheric plasma, going beyond the commonly used classical magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) approximation. Processes related to the non-ideal plasma behaviour due to neutrals may be the key ones to solve the problem of chromospheric heating, dynamics and fine structure. PI2FA project builds on the experience gained under PI’s Starting Grant project “SPIA: Magnetic connectivity through the Solar Partially Ionised Atmosphere”, where a systematic investigations of non-ideal effects due to neutrals in the solar plasma have been performed.
PI2FA project will make progress in the following questions:
- Determination of chromospheric heating mechanisms;
- Understanding destabilization mechanisms of prominences related to neutrals;
- Creation of multi-dimensional multi-fluid realistic models of the solar chromosphere.