Connecting the Sun and the solar wind: the self-consistent transition of heating mechanisms

We have performed a 2.5-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulation that resolves the propagation and dissipation of Alfvén waves in the solar atmosphere. Alfvénic fluctuations are introduced on the bottom boundary of the extremely large simulation box that ranges from the photosphere to far above the solar wind acceleration region. Our model is ab initio in the sense that no corona and no wind are assumed initially. The numerical experiment reveals the quasi-steady solution that has the transition from the cool to the hot atmosphere and the emergence of the high speed wind. The global structure of the resulting hot wind solution fairly well agrees with the coronal and the solar wind structure inferred from observations. The purpose of this study is to complement the previous paper by Matsumoto & Suzuki and describe the more detailed results and the analysis method. These results include the dynamics of the transition region and the more precisely measured heating rate in the atmosphere. Particularly, the spatial distribution of the heating rate helps us to interpret the actual heating mechanisms in the numerical simulation. Our estimation method of heating rate turned out to be a good measure for dissipation of Alfvén waves and low beta fast waves.