Coronal heating problem solved?

[jonesdave116]

Free access paper here;

First direct observation of a torsional Alfvén oscillation at coronal heights
Kohutova, P. et al.
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2020/01/aa37144-19/aa37144-19.html

Last paragraph of the discussion and conclusions;

We present the first spatially and temporally resolved observation of a torsional Alfvén wave in a large-scale structure at coronal heights, detecting clear anti-phase oscillation of line-of-sight velocities at the opposite edges of the flux tube. We have shown that the magnetic reconnection leads to the generation of torsional Alfvén waves. This suggests that the omnipresent small-scale reconnection events occurring in the lowermost layers of the solar atmosphere involving twisted magnetic elements are capable of Alfvén wave excitation on global scales.

Obviously my title is slightly misleading - this doesn't totally solve the problem, but goes some way towards doing so. Alfven waves are one of the major theorised mechanisms that are thought to heat the corona. It was only a hypothesis, but now it seems that such a wave has been indisputably observed.

In something of an ironic twist, the waves, named after Hannes Alfven, were generated due to magnetic reconnection. Alfven denied that MR could happen under the faulty conditions he applied to it.

This is going to cause much wailing and gnashing of teeth amongst the EU wooists!

 

[tusenfem]

Actually, there is so much energy input into the corona via various processes, that the real question should be "why is the corona not hotter than it actually is."

I do not believe in one process heating the corona, however, every (numerical) astrophysicist with a new paper will claim "I solved the corona heating problem."

 

[smartcooky]

Free access paper here;

First direct observation of a torsional Alfvén oscillation at coronal heights
Kohutova, P. et al.
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2020/01/aa37144-19/aa37144-19.html

Last paragraph of the discussion and conclusions;



Obviously my title is slightly misleading - this doesn't totally solve the problem, but goes some way towards doing so. Alfven waves are one of the major theorised mechanisms that are thought to heat the corona. It was only a hypothesis, but now it seems that such a wave has been indisputably observed.

In something of an ironic twist, the waves, named after Hannes Alfven, were generated due to magnetic reconnection. Alfven denied that MR could happen under the faulty conditions he applied to it.

This is going to cause much wailing and gnashing of teeth amongst the EU wooists!

Fake news!