Topological Dissipation and the Solar Corona
Boris Gudiksen
It has been established that Parkers (1972) idea of topological
reconnection takes place in the solar corona. Observations have
identified small scale heating events of energies ranging from the
largest flares to what in Parkers terminology would be micro
flares. Assuming the flares are a result of a cascade process, then
the number of flares per energy interval is a powerlaw agreeing with
observations from TRACE, SOHO and YOHKO. Our poor knowledge of the
details of the reconnection process itself may lead to substantial
bias in the estimated energy contained in
observed flares. As the distribution of energy between non-thermal
particle motions, heat and radiation is most likely a function of
energy, a first estimate of the functional shape can be gained from
Solar-B, observing large number of flares
at different energies. This shape may determine if the energy
contained in the small scale flares are sufficient to heat the corona,
as seems to be the result from recent numerical
simulations(Gudiksen+Nordlund, 2005).
Correspondence
Boris Gudiksen(boris@astro.uio.no), Institute of theoretical astrophysics, University of Oslo
presentation
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