We have measured the energy and dissipation of Alfvenic waves in the quiet
Sun. A magnetic field was used to infer the location and orientation of the
magnetic field lines along which the waves are expected to travel. The waves
were measured using spectral lines to infer the wave amplitude. The waves cause
a non-thermal broadening of the spectral lines, which can be expressed as a
non-thermal velocity v_nt. By combining the spectroscopic measurements with
this magnetic field model we were able to trace the variation of v_nt along the
magnetic field. At the footpoints of the quiet Sun loops we find that waves
inject an energy flux in the range of 1.2-5.2 x 10^5 erg cm^-2 s^-1. At the
minimum of this range, this amounts to more than 80% of the energy needed to
heat the quiet Sun. We also find that these waves are dissipated over a region
centered on the top of the loops. The position along the loop where the damping
begins is strongly correlated with the length of the loop, implying that the
damping mechanism depends on the global loop properties rather than on local
collisional dissipation.Comment: Submitted to the Astrophysical Journa
