MAGHEAT: Understanding energy deposition in the solar chromosphere

The mechanisms that heat the solar chromosphere and corona, and that drive the solar dynamo, remain some of the foremost questions in solar and stellar physics. Here, we focus on the question of how energy is transported and released in the solar chromosphere.

During the past 20-years, numerical simulations of the chromosphere have been used to validate various proposed heating mechanisms.

These studies have gradually come to recognise that the mechanisms that are likely dominant may be different in different parts of chromospheric fine structures.

To make progress, we therefore need constraints from highly resolved observational data.My goal is to identify what mechanisms are heating the chromosphere, characterize the energy flux that is being released and separate the contribution from each mechanism in active regions and flares.

This goal is achievable with the combination of a proposed development of novel non-LTE inversion methods, new MHD/particle simulations, and the availability of datasets with unprecedentedly high spatial resolution, large field-of-view, and very high S/N from DKIST, the Sunrise III mission, NASA’s IRIS satellite and updated instrumentation at the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope.

We will use observational data from these facilities to reconstruct more sophisticated 3D empirical models of the photosphere and chromosphere, which will allow us to identify the mechanisms that are responsible for the chromospheric energy deposition.