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Heating of the solar corona: A new outlook
Author(s) -
Wentzel Donat G.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
reviews of geophysics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 8.087
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1944-9208
pISSN - 8755-1209
DOI - 10.1029/rg016i004p00757
Subject(s) - corona (planetary geology) , nanoflares , dissipation , physics , coronal loop , coronal hole , magnetohydrodynamics , astrophysics , coronal radiative losses , magnetic field , mechanics , computational physics , solar wind , coronal mass ejection , astrobiology , thermodynamics , quantum mechanics , venus
Observations of the last few years show the corona to be highly inhomogeneous. The corona consists of loops of gas aligned with magnetic fields. The most viable theories for heating the corona are those that explicitly incorporate the structure of the magnetic loops. Coronal heating may be due to dissipation of electrical currents running along the loops and/or dissipation of hydromagnetic surface waves. The two theories have different implications for the heating of coronal holes.