Reconstructing the solar coronal magnetic field as a force-free magnetic field

We present some preliminary results on different mathematical problems encountered in attempts to reconstruct the coronal magnetic field, assumed to be in a force-free state, from its values in the photosphere. We discuss the formulations associated with these problems, and some new numerical methods that can be used to get their approximate solutions. Both the linear constant-alpha and the nonlinear cases are considered. We also discuss the possible use of dynamical 3D MHD codes to construct approximate solutions of the equilibrium force-free equations, which are needed for testing numerical extrapolation schemes.