Dear Hugh,
Jim Klimchuk sent a great summary of the current status of a nanoflare model around, so it deals with all the PROs. An outside reader who wants to hear both sides might be interested to hear also the CONs, which you could find in the ApJ Letter entitled "An observational test that disproves coronal nanoflare heating models" (Aschwanden 2008, ApJ 672, L135). The arguments made therein do not dismiss nanoflares altogether, but come to the conclusion that they occur in the transition region, rather than in the corona (as Parker originally suggested).
Cheers, Markus
On Mar 3, 2009, at 7:32 AM, Klimchuk, James A. (GSFC-6710) wrote:
Dear loops friends,
Here is a paper I wrote for the Hinode II conference
proceedings. In it, I try to do three things: (1) review the arguments leading to the conclusion that warm EUV loops must by bundles of strands heated by storms of nanoflares (the flow chart some of you have asked about); (2) reconcile the isothermal/multi- thermal debate in terms of the duration of the nanoflare storm; and (3) address the possibility that loops can be explained by thermal nonequilibrium. Comments are welcomed.
Thanks, James A. Klimchuk
____________________________________________ Dr. Markus J. Aschwanden Solar & Astrophysics Laboratory Lockheed Martin Advanced Techology Center Org. ADBS, Bldg. 252 3251 Hanover St., Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA Phone: 650-424-4001, FAX: 650-424-3994 URL: http://www.lmsal.com/~aschwand/ e-mail: aschwanden@lmsal.com _______________________________________ ____________________________________