[CraigS]

I just found a very interesting article on the limitations of Solar measurements to date:

Living with a star

I highly recommend this article for those interested in Solar observations, as it details the technology limitations in the past, and talks about what is only now possible.

For example, it talks about the previous SOHO, STEREO and TRACE observation satellites:

All previous images of the solar corona suffered from three major limitations:
- One is that they did not combine high spatial resolution with observations that covered the full disk of the Sun.
- Second, the instruments could not take lots of images in quick succession (known as "high cadence" operations) because of limitations to the rate that data could be sent back to Earth.
- And finally, because previous instruments could not take images across a range of different wavelengths, and at a rate comparable to coronal evolution, it was impossible to distinguish whether the observed events were due to heating, cooling or density changes.

But now, with the launch of NASA's new Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) mission (only launched in February 2010):

For decades there have been arguments about whether flare or filament eruption can cause another distant event. Now, after only a few months of observations, the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) movies have clearly established causality on distances of a solar diameter and more.

The 'AIA' was designed to study how the solar corona responds to the magnetic fields, that the Heliospheric and Magnetic Imager, (HMI) observes near the Sun's surface.

The combination of the onboard instruments are also capable of examining the magnetic fields beneath the surface, before any surface eruptions become visible .. pretty neat !

So, the so called "Coronal Heating Problem" mentioned in previous posts on this thread, is not necessarily a 'problem' solely because of a perceived violation of any laws of thermodynamics. The so-called 'problem' is partly contributed by limitations in the satellite technologies, in the collection of necessary, fundamental data.

So, before forming conclusions about some of the mysteries in the Universe, one should look carefully at many aspects surrounding the issue, including the sensing technology limitations.

Cheers