Onset of Magnetic Reconnection in the Solar Corona

Magnetic reconnection plays a vital role in the dynamics, heating, and emission in the solar corona. It also plays a role in the onset of transient events such as jets, spicules, filament eruptions, and coronal mass ejections. One of the major questions still unanswered is the nature of the onset of magnetic reconnection. How is it that the solar corona can slowly build up magnetic energy and then rapidly release it to manifest in the above phenomena? Recent theoretical developments have considered the nature of the tearing instability in dynamically thinning current sheets in terms of this rapid switch-on of reconnection. We present a study of the onset of magnetic reconnection in 3D dynamically evolving current sheets unstable to both oblique and parallel modes of the tearing instability. While it is not currently possible to realize the actual parameters in the solar corona such as Lundquist number and current sheet thickness, we are able to perform our study in a regime which has relevant ratios of tearing timescale to dynamic timescale that allow us to make relevant conclusions about the solar corona.