Loop observations and the coronal heating problem

Coronal heating continues to be one of the fundamental problems of solar physics. In recent years, instrumental advances and the availability of data from space observatories produced important progress, imposing restrictions to the models proposed. However, since the physical processes occur at spatial scales below the present instrumental resolution, definitive answers are still due. Since the corona is strongly dominated by the magnetic field, active region plasma is confined in closed structures or loops. These are the basic observable blocks of the corona, so the analysis of their structure and evolution is essential to understand the heating. In this report, mainly addressed to astronomers not necessarily familiarized with the subject, we review some of the proposed heating models and we pay special attention to the sometimes confusing and apparently contradictory observations of coronal loops. We discuss the consequences of these observations for some of the heating models proposed, in particular those based on impulsive events known as nanoflares.