WHAT ARE THE ONSET CONDITIONS AT WHICH MAGNETIC RECONNECTION CAUSES A SUDDEN RELEASE OF STORED MAGNETIC ENERGY? THIS IS A FUNDAMENTAL QUESTION AS THESE CONDITIONS DETERMINE THE AMOUNT OF ENERGY THAT CAN BE BUILT UP IN THE FIELD AND THEREFORE THE AMOUNT OF ENERGY THAT CAN BE RELEASED. IT HAS ENORMOUS IMPLICATIONS FOR CORONAL HEATING FLARES CMES JETS ETC. WE PROPOSE TO INVESTIGATE MAGNETIC RECONNECTION WITH A PARTICULAR EMPHASIS ON ITS ROLE IN HEATING THE CORONA AND CHROMOSPHERE. WE WILL ATTACK THE PROBLEM USING A SERIES OF CAREFULLY PLANNED 3D MHD SIMULATIONS. THESE UNIQUE SIMULATIONS WILL EXAMINE A PREVIOUSLY UNEXPLORED REGIME INTERMEDIATE BETWEEN LARGE-SCALE MODELS (E.G. ACTIVE REGION SIZE) AND SMALL-SCALE MODELS (ISOLATED CURRENT SHEETS). SOME OF THE SIMULATIONS TREAT INDIVIDUAL CURRENT SHEETS BUT IN THE FULLY COUPLED SOLAR ATMOSPHERE. THE SHEETS EXTEND FROM THE TOP OF THE PHOTOSPHERE THROUGH THE CHROMOSPHERE AND TRANSITION REGION AND INTO THE CORONA. THEY EVOLVE DUE TO FLOWS IMPOSED AT THE HIGH- PHOTOSPHERIC BASE LIKE ON THE REAL SUN AND NOT AT SOME ARBITRARY LOW- WALL OF A NUMERICAL BOX. WE WILL DETERMINE WHETHER RECONNECTION ONSET DEPENDS ON A CRITICAL SHEAR ANGLE CRITICAL SHEET THICKNESS CRITICAL LENGTH-TO-WIDTH ASPECT RATIO OR SOMETHING ELSE. OTHER SIMULATIONS TREAT THE INTERACTION OF MULTIPLE INTER-TWINDED FLUX TUBES. WE WILL INVESTIGATE THE COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOR THAT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR DISTINGUISHABLE CORONAL LOOPS WHICH ARE DIFFERENT FROM THE DIFFUSE CORONA. HOW DOES ONE RECONNECTION EVENT TRIGGER SUBSEQUENT EVENTS TO PRODUCE A NANOFLARE STORM ? WHAT IS THE ENERGY CONTAINED IN EACH EVENT AND HOW OFTEN DO THEY REPEAT? BECAUSE WE TREAT THE COUPLED SYSTEM AND INCLUDE EFFECTS SUCH AS CHROMOSPHERIC EVAPORATION WE WILL GENERATE REALISTIC SYNTHETIC OBSERVATIONS FOR COMPARISON WITH ACTUAL DATA FROM HINODE/EIS AND THE EUNIS ROCKET PAYLOAD. FOR THE THIRD SET OF SIMULATIONS WE WILL USE MULTI-FLUID HALL MHD TO TAKE A CLOSE-UP LOOK AT THE MICROPHYSICS AT PLAY IN THE CENTERS OF THE CURRENT SHEETS. WE WILL IMPOSE FLOWS AT THE BOUNDARIES OF THESE LOCALIZED MODELS THAT ARE BASED ON THE FLOWS WE SEE DEVELOP WITHIN THE CURRENT SHEETS OF OUR COUPLED-SYSTEM SIMULATIONS. IN THIS WAY WE WILL UNCOVER THE PROPERTIES OF RECONNECTION ONSET AT BOTH THE MACROSCOPIC AND MICROSCOPIC SCALES. TAKEN TOGETHER THIS INNOVATIVE SERIES OF SIMULATIONS WILL DRAMATICALLY IMPROVE IN OUR UNDERSTANDING OF CORONAL AND CHROMOSPHERIC HEATING.