Turbulent coronal heating mechanisms: coupling of dynamics and thermodynamics

Context. Photospheric motions shuffle the footpoints of the strong axial magnetic field that threads coronal loops, which gives rise to turbulent nonlinear dynamics that are characterized by the continuous formation and dissipation of field-aligned current sheets in which energy is deposited at small-scales and the heating occurs. Previous studies showed that the current sheet thickness is several orders of magnitude smaller than present-day state-of-the-art observational resolution (~700 km).