Authors: Krishna Khanal (Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research, University of Alabama in Huntsville), Gary P. Zank (Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research, University of Alabama in Huntsville), Laxman Adhikari (Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research, University of Alabama in Huntsville)

We investigate whether dissipation of quasi-2D turbulence can provide sufficient heating to sustain
the thermal structure of the solar chromosphere. The turbulence model is based on the formulation of G. P. Zank et al. (2026), in which turbulence is generated by magnetic carpet loops and photospheric inter-granular fluctuations and transported flows associated with four main structures,
namely, post emergent magnetic carpet loops, acoustic shocks, spicule I, and spicule II. Using the
VAL-C semi-empirical chromospheric model, we calculate the expected profiles of turbulent energy
density, correlation length, and turbulent heating rate by incorporating log-normal distributions of
flow speeds. We consider three cases: a single-flow model associated with magnetic carpet loops, a
multi-flow model without photospheric turbulence, and a multi-flow model including photospheric turbulence. The resulting turbulent heating rates are compared with the heating required to maintain the
VAL-C temperature profile, as inferred from the chromospheric energy equation. In all cases considered, turbulent dissipation provides heating rates that exceed the heating required throughout most of
the chromosphere. Moreover, the turbulent heating rate profiles exhibit a spatial distribution and peak location that are broadly consistent with the heating profile inferred from
the VAL-C model. This suggests that chromospheric heating is governed by the gradual
dissipation of turbulence advected by chromospheric flow structures, rather than by wave
propagation alone.