| Presentation Title: | Growth, Saturation and Effects of the Thermal Farley Buneman Instability in the Coldest Region of the Chromosphere |
| Author(s): | Meers Oppenheim, Samuel Evans, Juan Martínez-Sykora, Yakov Dimant |
Abstract:
In the coldest regions of the solar chromosphere electrons and ions will decouple due to high collision rates, and, in the presence of cross-B-field flows, can lead to the development plasma waves and turbulence. We will discuss a set of simulations and analytical theory that show how solar atmospheric currents can drive a thermal plasma instability that rapidly develops into turbulence. Though this turbulence is small scale (centimeters to a few meters), it will modify the conductivity, temperatures, and energy flows through much of the chromosphere. Incorporating the effects of this turbulence, and other small-scale turbulence, into large-scale models of solar and stellar atmospheres should improve physicists’ ability to model energy flows with important consequences for the predicted temperatures and radiation patterns.