Nanoflares and current sheet dissipation

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