Heating of the upper Solar Atmosphere – confronting models with observations (Heat)

Heating in the solar atmosphere takes place on different spatial scales.

On the one hand, the sources of heating can be found in small vortex/tornado-like flows on scales of a few tens of kilometers.

On the other hand, violent explosions can heat material over a few hundred thousand kilometers and often result in coronal mass ejection (CME). Our understanding of the physical processes that drive these phenomena at different spatial scales is limited.

The ultimate question, still unsolved in modern solar physics is: why are the outer parts of the solar atmosphere so hot? What sustains the temperature of millions of degrees?

In this project, we will combine our unique set of diagnostics tools with unique high-resolution observations from the ground and space to answer these questions and trace the sources of heating.

The main objective is the identification of the physical processes that govern the transport and dissipation of energy and thus contribute to the heating of the solar atmosphere.

Our advantage is a unique model that self-consistently reproduces a plethora of features observed also on the real Sun and extensive experience in obtaining, analyzing, and interpreting solar observations.