Magnetic carpets and hot coronae

Clare Parnell , RAS Sir Norman Lockyer Fellow, considers the puzzle of how the solar corona is heated, a process best understood by careful consideration of the small‐scale phenomena hidden in the big picture of the Sun. Abstract Solar physicists have known for many decades now that the outer atmosphere of the Sun, the solar corona, is some 200 times hotter than the surface of the Sun. Understanding just how the corona is heated is one of the Sun's greatest mysteries and although many mechanisms have been proposed it is not clear which is the most important. What is clear, however, is that small‐scale phenomena are a very important piece in this puzzle.