Photospheric Motions and Their Effects on the Corona: a Numerical Approach

We perform a number of numerical simulations of the solar corona with the aim to understand how it responds to different conditions in the photosphere. By changing parameters which govern the motion of the plasma at the photosphere we study the behavior of the corona, in particular, the effects on the current density generated. An MHD code is used to run simulations, using a 20x20x20 Mm^3 box with time spans ranging from one hundred to several hundreds of minutes. All the experiments show a fast initial increase of the current density, followed by a stabilization around an asymptotic value which depends on the photospheric conditions. These asymptotic average current densities as well as the turn-over points are discussed.