3D MHD simulations of coronal loops heated via magnetic braiding II. Automatic detection of reconnection outflows and statistical analysis of their properties

TL;DR

This study uses 3D MHD simulations and an automatic detection algorithm to analyze reconnection outflows in coronal loops, providing insights into nanoflare heating mechanisms and their observational signatures.

Contribution

Introduces the ROAD algorithm for automatic detection of reconnection outflows in 3D MHD simulations of coronal loops, linking simulation results with nanoflare heating diagnostics.

Findings

Reconnection outflows exhibit statistical properties similar to observed nanojets.

Magnetic reconnection sustains high-temperature structures over extended periods.

Reconnection-driven jets are potential diagnostics for nanoflare heating in the solar corona.

Abstract

Recent observations of fast and bursty ``nanojets'' suggest novel diagnostics of nanoflare heating in the solar corona. The aim of this work is to investigate the presence and properties of reconnection outflows, similar to observed nanojets, in numerical simulations, and explore their relationship with the nanoflare properties. This work explores their potential as diagnostics for nanoflare heating in observations. We developed an algorithm of Reconnection Outflows Automatic Detection (ROAD) in 3D MHD simulations of coronal loops. We applied the algorithm to a 3D MHD stratified coronal loop model heated by magnetic reconnection and analyzed the statistical properties of the jets produced at reconnection sites, over about one solar hour. The magnetic structure is maintained at high temperature and for an indefinite time by intermittent episodes of local magnetic energy release due to reconnection.