Structure and Evolution of Coronal Magnetic Fields

Authors: A.A. van Ballegooijen
Affiliation: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

One of the primary objectives of the LWS program is to understand how energy is injected into the corona, how it is stored there, and how it is released. This requires determining the geometry of the coronal magnetic field and its evolution subject to external forcing and energy dissipation. I will discuss how magnetic-field measurements from SDO/HMI and coronal images from SDO/AIA will be used to advance our understanding of 3D coronal magnetic structure and evolution. I will focus on non-potential structures associated with filaments and prominences, and the role of these structures in flares and coronal mass ejections.
This work is supported by NASA via the AIA contract to Lockheed Martin (subcontract SP02D4301R).