Sporadic plasma heating in the lower chromosphere

Abstract

It is usually assumed that heating of the chromosphere is caused by the precipitation of energetic particles (electrons and protons) accelerated in the solar corona, namely, at flare arc tops. On the other hand, recently obtained observational data show that the chromospheric footpoints of compact magnetic loops are directly heated to ≥106 K, and hot plasma erupted from the footpoints of such loops. The plasma mechanism of the THz emission of flares may also indicate that deep chromospheric layers with densities up to n ≈ 1015 cm−3 can be heated to about 105–106 K. It has been shown that electrons can be accelerated and plasma can be heated in the lower chromosphere when the Rayleigh-Taylor instability develops at magnetic loop chromo-spheric footpoints. This instability results in the penetration of the upper chromospheric plasma into a loop and induces an electric field that effectively accelerates electrons and leads to in situ heating of the chromo-sphere.