Authors: Steven Cranmer (University of Colorado Boulder)

Many different physical processes have been suggested to explain the origin of the corona and solar wind. A few of these processes (such as MHD turbulence) are currently included in 3D simulations that tend to do a good job in reproducing a wide range of observational constraints. However, it is not yet possible to conclude from these successes that any one process must be the dominant contributor to coronal heating and solar wind acceleration. Each proposed process must be given an opportunity to demonstrate its applicability and fidelity with observations. In fact, it is likely that multiple mechanisms may be acting at once, and their relative contributions can be evaluated only when they are included together in the same model. Thus, we present a new modeling framework called HELIOS (Hypothesis Evaluation for Launching Ionized Outflows from the Sun) that includes as many of the proposed processes as possible. These processes include reflection-driven MHD turbulence (with a new transport model inspired by numerical simulations), enhanced wave reflection from density fluctuations generated by parametric decay, uniturbulence initiated by phase mixing, additional sources of low-frequency Alfven waves from magnetic-carpet reconnection, acoustic waves from both photospheric p-modes and chromospheric mode conversion, and time-averaged mass/energy loading from statistical distributions of interchange reconnection events throughout the inner and middle corona. In addition, HELIOS includes up-to-date descriptions of electron thermal conduction (including modifications to Spitzer conductivity from free-streaming effects, ambipolar diffusion, and plasma instabilities), radiative losses (that bridge the gap between optically thick and thin regions of the solar atmosphere), partial ionization effects in the chromosphere, and wave-pressure forces. This poster will be a progress report on the inclusion of all these bells and whistles into “unified” models of coronal heating along a specified magnetic field line.