ESPOS - Deciphering solar coronal heating: Energizing small-scale loops through surface convection (D. Nóbrega-Siverio)

The solar atmosphere is filled with clusters of hot small-scale loops commonly known as Coronal Bright Points (CBPs). These ubiquitous structures stand out in the Sun by their strong X-ray and/or extreme ultraviolet (EUV) emission for hours to days, which makes them a crucial piece when solving the solar coronal heating puzzle. Here we present a novel 3D numerical model using the Bifrost code that explains the sustained CBP heating for several hours. We find that stochastic photospheric convective motions alone significantly stress the CBP magnetic field topology, leading to important Joule and viscous heating concentrated around the CBP’s inner spine at a few megameters above the solar surface. We validate our model by comparing simultaneous CBP observations from SDO and SST with observable diagnostics calculated from the numerical results for EUV wavelengths as well as for the Halpha line using the Multi3D synthesis code. Co-authors: Fernando Moreno-Insertis, Klaus Galsgaard, Kilian Krikova, Luc Rouppe van der Voort, Reetika Joshi, and Maria Madjarska