In this work, we analyse coordinated observations spanning chromospheric, TR
and coronal temperatures at very high resolution which reveal essential
characteristics of thermally unstable plasmas. Coronal rain is found to be a
highly multi-thermal phenomenon with a high degree of co-spatiality in the
multi-wavelength emission. EUV darkening and quasi-periodic intensity
variations are found to be strongly correlated to coronal rain showers.
Progressive cooling of coronal rain is observed, leading to a height dependence
of the emission. A fast-slow two-step catastrophic cooling progression is
found, which may reflect the transition to optically thick plasma states. The
intermittent and clumpy appearance of coronal rain at coronal heights becomes
more continuous and persistent at chromospheric heights just before impact,
mainly due to a funnel effect from the observed expansion of the magnetic
field. Strong density inhomogeneities on spatial scales of 0.2"-0.5" are found,
in which TR to chromospheric temperature transition occurs at the lowest
detectable scales. The shape of the distribution of coronal rain widths is
found to be independent of temperature with peaks close to the resolution limit
of each telescope, ranging from 0.2" to 0.8". However we find a sharp increase
of clump numbers at the coolest wavelengths and especially at higher
resolution, suggesting that the bulk of the rain distribution remains
undetected. Rain clumps appear organised in strands in both chromospheric and
TR temperatures, suggesting an important role of thermal instability in the
shaping of fundamental loop substructure. We further find structure reminiscent
of the MHD thermal mode. Rain core densities are estimated to vary between
2x10^{10} cm^{-3} and 2.5x10^{11} cm^{-3} leading to significant downward mass
fluxes per loop of 1-5x10^{9} g s^{-1}, suggesting a major role in the
chromosphere-corona mass cycle.Comment: Abstract is only short version. See paper for full. Countless pages,
figures (and movies, but not included here). Accepted for publication in the
Astrophysical Journa