Thermal Evolution of a Coronal Condensation

Abstract

The thermal evolution of coronal magnetic structures is studied under the assumption that the inertial terms are small. Assuming the coronal heating function is due to the damping of waves, then the amount of energy supplied to the loop will decay from the footpoint towards the summit The effect of the decay length on the heating is investigated, and when this length is below a critical value a cool condensation forms. Different initial profiles are considered and either purely hot plasmas or cool condensations can be found depending on whether the initial profile is above or below a threshold value.

Address from August 1996: Centro de Astrofisica Teorica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de los Andes, Merida, Venezuela.