THE INFLUENCE OF NUMERICAL RESOLUTION ON CORONAL DENSITY IN HYDRODYNAMIC MODELS OF IMPULSIVE HEATING

The effect of the numerical spatial resolution in models of the solar corona and corona/chromosphere interface is examined for impulsive heating over a range of magnitudes using one-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations. It is demonstrated that the principal effect of inadequate resolution is on the coronal density. An underresolved loop typically has a peak density of at least a factor of two lower than a resolved loop subject to the same heating, with larger discrepancies in the decay phase. The temperature for underresolved loops is also lower indicating that lack of resolution does not 'bottle up' the heat flux in the corona. Energy is conserved in the models to under 1% in all cases, indicating that this is not responsible for the low density. Instead, we argue that in underresolved loops the heat flux 'jumps across' the transition region to the dense chromosphere from which it is radiated rather than heating and ablating transition region plasma. This emphasizes the point that the interaction between corona and chromosphere occurs only through the medium of the transition region. Implications for three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic coronal models are discussed.