Observations of an Energetically Isolated Quiet Sun Transient: Evidence of Quasi-Steady Coronal Heating

TL;DR

This study investigates a quiet Sun transient's role in coronal heating, revealing magnetic reorganization and quasi-steady processes that contribute to the Sun's energy balance and support the significance of cool atmospheric layers in solar heating.

Contribution

It provides new observational and modeling evidence linking quiet Sun transients to magnetic reorganization and coronal heating, emphasizing the role of quasi-steady processes.

Findings

Transient is energetically isolated from active regions.

Magnetic reorganization correlates with episodic heating.

Transient's stability suggests inhibition of eruptive energy buildup.

Abstract

Increasing evidence for coronal heating contributions from cooler solar atmospheric layers, notably quiet Sun (QS) conditions, challenges standard solar atmospheric descriptions of bright transition region (TR) emission. As such, questions to the role of dynamic QS transients in contributing to the total coronal energy budget are elevated. Using observations from the {\it Atmospheric Imaging Assembly} and {\it Heliosemic Magnetic Imager} on board the {\it Solar Dynamics Observatory}, and numerical model extrapolations of coronal magnetic fields, we investigate a dynamic QS transient energetically isolated to the TR and extruding from a common footpoint shared with two heated loop arcades. A non-casual relationship is established between episodic heating of the QS transient and wide-spread magnetic field re-organization events, while evidence is found favoring a magnetic topology typical of eruptive processes. Quasi-steady interchange reconnection events are implicated as a source of the transient's visibly bright radiative signature. We consider the QS transient's temporally stable ($\approx$\,35\,min) radiative nature occurs as a result of the large-scale magnetic field geometries of the QS and/or relatively quiet nature of the magnetic photosphere, which possibly act to inhibit energetic buildup processes required to initiate a catastrophic eruption phase. This work provides insight to the QS's thermodynamic and magnetic relation to eruptive processes quasi-steadily heating a small-scale dynamic and TR transient. This work elevates arguments of non-negligible coronal heating contributions from cool atmospheric layers in QS conditions, and increases evidence for solar wind mass feeding of dynamic transients therein.