NEWS: Plasma Jets Pump Heat into the Sun's Sizzling Corona
Short-lived bursts of plasma leaping outward from the sun contribute to
the mysteriously well-heated outer solar atmosphere

http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...SA_DD_20110106

"Various explanations have been put forth, from sound waves or magnetic
waves dissipating in the upper solar atmosphere, or corona, to short
bursts of energy known as nanoflares erupting as tangled magnetic field
lines in the corona reconnect. Now observations from a new generation of
sun-observing spacecraft are implicating a different mechanism, one that
could provide the corona with a significant portion of its heat by
continually delivering hot ionized gas, or plasma, to the upper atmosphere".