A unified framework for coronal heating: synthesizing wave-turbulence and magnetic reconnection dissipation
Advances in Space Research, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Basım Tarihi: 2026
- Doi Numarası: 10.1016/j.asr.2026.08.036
- Dergi Adı: Advances in Space Research
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Artic & Antarctic Regions, Compendex, INSPEC, MEDLINE, Academic Search Ultimate (EBSCO), Engineering Source (EBSCO)
- Anahtar Kelimeler: Alfvén-wave turbulence, Coronal heating, Magnetic reconnection, Plasmoid instability
- Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
The solar corona sustains temperatures exceeding one million kelvin above a photosphere of roughly 5,800K, a long-standing puzzle. Two families of mechanism compete to explain it: Alfvén-wave turbulence (the alternating-current, or AC, mechanism) and magnetic reconnection driven by field-line braiding (the direct-current, or DC, mechanism). No analytical framework has connected their interplay directly to observable quantities. We bridge this gap by adopting a turbulent-to-reconnection transition scale: the perpendicular scale at which an anisotropic Alfvénic cascade hands off to plasmoid-mediated reconnection. This scale depends on the perpendicular correlation length (Formula presented) and the Lundquist number (Formula presented) (the ratio of resistive to Alfvénic timescales), scaling as (Formula presented). Connecting it to observable diagnostics yields three results. First, a single unified heating equation reproduces the observed coronal heating fluxes across six structure types, including campfire events and non-flaring active-region constraints, spanning five orders of magnitude; four of the six are matched within a factor of three, while loop footpoints and campfires are under-predicted, locating where a single-channel cascade is incomplete. Second, the predicted transition scale of approximately 6 to 180 metres lies three to five orders of magnitude below the resolution of any current extreme-ultraviolet imager, quantifying what next-generation instruments must achieve to observe the AC/DC handoff directly. Third, the framework predicts a reconnection-scale spectral break whose frequency scales with the Alfvén speed, providing a forward-model target for in situ measurement by Parker Solar Probe.