[Previous] | [Session 88] | [Next]
E.E. DeLuca, J. Bookbinder, L. Golub (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA)
The RAM mission is designed to address fundamental questions related to the origin and dynamics of hot magnetized plasmas throughout the universe. Observations of the solar corona demonstrate that the important physical processes take place on small spatial and temporal scales, while the energy driving these processes is stored on large scales, and the response can affect the global structure of the corona.
In this talk we discuss the theoretical and observational evidence for the existence of small-scale coronal structures, and outline the observational requirements to answer the following fundamental questions that apply to all coronal plasmas: (1) What are the conditions that lead to magnetic reconnection? (2) What micro-scale instabilities lead to global effects? (3) Where are the regions of particle acceleration? (4) Where are the reconnection regions and what is their topology?
A companion poster will present the baseline instrument complement that will achieve these observational requirements.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: edeluca@cfa.harvard.edu
[Previous] | [Session 88] | [Next]
Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.