Episodic coronal heating

Abstract

A study is made of the observational consequences of the hypothesis that there is no steady coronal heating, the solar corona instead being heated episodically, such that each short burst of heating is followed by a long period of radiative cooling. The form of the resulting contribution to the differential emission measure (DEM), and to a convenient related function (the differential energy flux, DEF) is calculated. Observational data for the quiet solar atmosphere indicate that the upper branch of the DEM, corresponding to temperatures above 100,000 K, can be interpreted in terms of episodic energy injection at coronal temperatures.