Heating of coronal loops by phase-mixing.

A simple, self similar solution for the heating of coronal loops is presented. It is shown that the Heyvaerts-Priest model gives a good description of phase mixing in a certain class of coronal loops. In addition, under typical coronal conditions the ohmic heating, due to phase mixing, can provide magnetic energy on a timescale comparable with the coronal radiative time. Thus, it is possible that phase mixing can maintain a hot coronal loop for large Lundquist number. If the photospheric motions continually excite coronal loops, then phase mixing could contribute to a background level of coronal heating for very large Lundquist number.