What processes are responsible for heating the corona to several hundred times the temperature of the Sun's visible surface, and for accelerating the solar wind? The answer may no longer be a mystery.

In a very recent e-print, astro-ph/0701908, T. Mishonov with students M. Stoev and Y. Maneva have proposed the absorbtion of Alfven waves as the main mechanism of heating of solar corona.

They have found that the sharp increase of the plasma temperature by two orders of magnitude is related to a self-induced opacity with respect to Alfven waves. The maximal frequency for propagation of Alfven waves is determined by the strongly temperature dependent kinematic viscosity. In such a way the temperature jump is due to absorption of high frequency Alfven waves in a narrow layer above the solar surface. The work further evaluates the power, dissipated in this layer, which blows up the plasma and gives birth to the solar wind. A model short wave-length (WKB) evaluation takes into account the 1/f² frequency dependance of the transversal magnetic field and velocity spectral densities. Such spectral densities agree with an old magnetometer's data taken by Voyager 1 and recent theoretical calculations in the framework of Langevin-Burgers MHD, conducted by T. Mishonov and collaborators.

The present theory predicts existence of intensive high frequency Alfven waves in the cold layer beneath the corona. It is shortly discussed how this statement can be checked experimentally. It is demonstrated that the magnitude of the Alfven waves generating random noise and the solar wind velocity can be expressed in terms of satellite experimental data alone.