Coronal Heating by Coronal Tectonics Interactions

Alan Hood ,  University of St Andrews

Coronal Heating by Coronal Tectonics
Parker suggested that the corona could be heated by the dissipation
of magnetic energy stored in numerous small current sheets and he
suggested that these currents sheets would form when random
photospheric motions braid a uniform magnetic field. However,
another method, called Coronal Tectonics, assumes that the
photospheric magnetic field arises from discrete sources and smooth
velocities will automatically produce coronal current sheets. This
alternative method is investigated through a 3D MHD simulation and
the results are compared with a simple analytical model. Significant
ohmic heating occurs, suggesting that this mechanism can heat the corona.