Abstract
Yohkoh is revolutionizing our understanding of the solar corona and the behavior of magnetized plasmas in general. It appears that all the transient heating, including solar flares, which have time scales of 10–100 Alfven transit times, is due to magnetic reconnection. This transient heating is sometimes associated with global structural changes in the coronal magnetic fields. Magnetic reconnection with its associated slow shocks is a powerful engine to convert magnetic energy to plasma kinetic and thermal energies. The Yohkoh observations also show the existence of steadily heated plasmas with temperature of 2–4 MK, both in active regions and in the quiet Sun. The mechanism of the steady heating has not yet been understood.
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