Coronal heating and the appearance of the solar corona

The details of the dependence of coronal heating on the conditions within the corona determine the appearance of the corona as viewed by different instruments. For example, strong fields at the base of short loops cause relatively hot, X-ray bright loops, whereas the much weaker fields over the quiet Sun result in cooler, EUV bright loops. Any dependence of the volume heating rates on local conditions (such as height or field strength) has a signature in the thermal profiles along the loops, translating into an appearance that depends on the instrumental pass band. In this preliminary study, we explore how such dependences of coronal heating on coronal conditions affect the appearance of the solar corona, and investigate the consequences for the global EUV and X-ray spectral irradiance. These results will eventually be used to compute the solar spectral irradiance in the EUV and X-rays for quiescent conditions throughout the solar cycle.