A SELF-CONSISTENT MODEL FOR THE RESONANT HEATING OF CORONAL LOOPS - THE EFFECTS OF COUPLING WITH THE CHROMOSPHERE

We present the first model of resonant heating of coronal loops that i ncorporates the dependence of the loop density on the heating rate. By adopting the quasi-static equilibrium scaling law rho proportional to Q(5/7), where rho is the density and Q is the volumetric heating rate , we are able to approximate the well-known phenomena of chromospheric evaporation and chromospheric condensation, which regulate the corona l density. We combine this scaling law with a quasi-nonlinear MHD mode l for the resonant absorption of Alfven waves in order to study the sp atial and temporal dependence of the heating. We find that the heating is concentrated in multiple resonance layers, rather than in the sing le layer of previous models, and that these layers drift throughout th e loop to heat the entire volume. These newfound properties are in muc h better agreement with coronal observations.