NANOFLARES AND CURRENT SHEET DISSIPATION

Energy must be continually supplied to the solar corona to maintain bo th its average temperature and its high energy manifestations. The ene rgy is supplied by photospheric motions and the magnetic field acts bo th to transmit this energy to the corona and as the furnace in which t he energy is stored. The means by which the energy is dissipated and t ransformed into the actual forms we observe is the activation of curre nt sheets. We conjecture here the properties of such current sheets as derived by both energetical arguments and numerical evidence of the s elf-organization of a system of currents in a highly turbulent medium. The consequences of the appearance of spatial and temporal intermitte ncy on the different aspects of solar acitvity are also discussed.