Theories of heating and particle acceleration in the solar corona

Processes for heating the solar corona and accelerating particles in flares are reviewed. Observations from Yohkoh, SOHO and TRACE are continuing to reveal a dynamic, highly structured corona, with brightenings, flickerings, hot and cool loops all being present. It is unclear at this time how these...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Advances in space research 2000, Vol.26 (11), p.1759-1768
Main Author: Cargill, Peter J.
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Processes for heating the solar corona and accelerating particles in flares are reviewed. Observations from Yohkoh, SOHO and TRACE are continuing to reveal a dynamic, highly structured corona, with brightenings, flickerings, hot and cool loops all being present. It is unclear at this time how these various components fit together, or whether a unique heating mechanism can account for all the observed behaviour. One mechanism, that of heating by nanoflares, is examined in detail and some observational signatures of the model are presented. Yohkoh has shed major new light on acceleration in solar flares with its observations of both footpoint and coronal hard X-ray sources. There are three generic classes of particle acceleration processes that could account for these observations, direct electric fields, shocks and MHD turbulence. The plasma physics of these are all now becoming well understood, but it is unclear which fits best into the Yohkoh paradigm of a large coronal reconnection site.
ISSN:0273-1177
1879-1948
DOI:10.1016/S0273-1177(01)00018-7