On the Role of the Neutral Plasma Component in the Electric Current Dissipation and the Formation of a Transition Region in the Solar Atmosphere

A mechanism of the formation of a transition region between the chromosphere and the corona, which relies on the dissipation of electric currents in a partially ionized plasma is proposed. It has been demonstrated that the transition region experiences the enhanced level of Joule dissipation due to an increased Cowling resistivity caused by ion-neutral particle collisions. This leads to effective heating of current-carrying open magnetic flux tubes, the type II spicules, which are responsible for the formation of a thin transition layer. An estimation is provided for the width of this transition region, which depends on the power of Joule dissipation, i.e., the magnitude of the electric current.