THE DIFFERENTIAL EMISSION MEASURE OF NESTED HOT AND COOL MAGNETIC LOOPS

The detailed thermal structure of the magnetized solar transition regi on, as measured by its differential emission measure [DEM(T)], is poor ly known. Building on the fact that the solar surface is strongly magn etized and thereby structured, proposals have been made that envision a significant lower-temperature contribution to the energy balance fro m (ion) heat flux across an arcade of different temperature loops. In this paper, we describe a self-consistent, 2-D, MHD simulation, which includes the full thermal effects of parallel stability and anisotropi c conduction, of a nested-loop model of the thermal and magnetic struc ture of the transition region. We then demonstrate that the predicted DEM agrees with observations in the conceptually elusive T < 10(5) K r egime.