Topological Dissipation and the Small-Scale Fields in Turbulent Gases

Parker, E. N., Topological Dissipation and the Small-Scale Fields in Turbulent Gases, ApJ, 174, 499 (1972) (ADS)

The cartoon

(click on the image for a larger version)

An all-time classic, the foundation stone of the much-discussed "nanoflare" idea, whereby coronal heating stems from a myriad of current sheets resulting from field-line braiding in response to footpoint motions. What we see is a rectified version of the coronal connections between two photospheric regions. At the time of entry of this cartoon, we still have not identified an individual nanoflare observationally, although there are claims to that effect; Parker's brilliant idea was just that there are so many of them that one could never detect an isolated one. That's held up as a consistent prediction, but it is a bit frustrating to have a process without a referent.

Date: 2019 November 24