What is heating the quiet-Sun chromosphere?

Abstract

It is widely believed that the heating of the chromosphere in quiet-Sun internetwork regions is provided by dissipation of acoustic waves that are excited by the convective motions close to the top of the convection zone and in the photospheric overshoot layer. This view lately became challenged by observations suggesting that the acoustic energy flux into the chromosphere is too low, by a factor of at least ten. Based on a comparison of TRACE data with synthetic image sequences for a three-dimensional simulation extending from the top layers of the convection zone to the middle chromosphere, we come to the contradicting conclusion that the acoustic flux in the model provides sufficient energy for heating the solar chromosphere of internetwork regions. The role of a weak magnetic field and associated electric current sheets is also discussed.