Fundamentals of impulsive energy release in the corona

Abstract

It is essential that there be coordinated and co-optimized observations in X-rays, gamma-rays, and EUV during the peak of solar cycle 26 (~2036) to significantly advance our understanding of impulsive energy release in the corona. The open questions include: What are the physical origins of space-weather events? How are particles accelerated at the Sun? How is impulsively released energy transported throughout the solar atmosphere? How is the solar corona heated? Many of the processes involved in triggering, driving, and sustaining solar eruptive events -- including magnetic reconnection, particle acceleration, plasma heating, and energy transport in magnetized plasmas -- also play important roles in phenomena throughout the Universe. This set of observations can be achieved through a single flagship mission or, with foreplanning, through a combination of major missions (e.g., the previously proposed FIERCE mission concept).

arXiv commentWhite paper submitted to the Decadal Survey for Solar and Space Physics (Heliophysics) 2024-2033; 5 pages, 1 figure

References in corpus (7)

• A Model for Solar Coronal Mass Ejections
• Confined and ejective eruptions of kink-unstable flux ropes
• Global Energetics of Thirty-Eight Large Solar Eruptive Events
• A Unified Computational Model for Solar and Stellar Flares
• Key Aspects of Coronal Heating
• Microflares and the Statistics of X-ray Flares
• Hinode X-Ray Telescope Detection of Hot Emission from Quiescent Active Regions: A Nanoflare Signature?