EVOLUTION AND STATISTICS OF CURRENT SHEETS IN CORONAL MAGNETIC LOOPS

A resistive magnetohydrodynamic model is proposed for a straightened c oronal loop subject to continuous slow fluctuating random footpoint dr iving. The characteristic timescale of this driving motion is much lon ger than the Alfven transit time along the loop. The governing equatio ns for this model are integrated numerically until a statistical stead y state is attained. In steady state the spatial structure of the magn etic field is dominated by thin regions of intense current density ind icative of current sheets. Using a simple model of resistive reconnect ion the statistical steady state can be understood as a random superpo sition of current sheets. This model predicts the scaling of the sheet parameters and the global heating with resistivity. The scaling is ve rified over the small range of values achievable in these numerical ex periments.