Context. Understanding the role of magnetic reconnection in the heating and dynamics of the solar atmosphere requires detailed observational data of any observable aspect of the reconnection process, including small-scale features such as plasmoids.
Aims: Here, we examine the capability of active and upcoming instruments to detect plasmoids generated by reconnection in the corona including low-density regimes.
Methods: We used the Bifrost code to perform simulations of plasmoid-mediated reconnection in the corona with a 2D idealized setup: a fan-spine topology with uniform density including thermal conduction. Through a forward-modeling of extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) observables, we checked whether our simulated plasmoids could be detected with the instruments of Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and Solar Orbiter (SO), as well as the upcoming Multi-Slit Solar Explorer (MUSE) and Solar-C missions.
Results: Short-lived (∼10 − 20 s) small-scale (∼0.2 − 0.5 Mm) coronal plasmoids are not resolvable with the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board SDO. In contrast, they could be captured with the EUV High-Resolution Imager at the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI-HRIEUV) of SO. The spatial and temporal high-resolution planned for the MUSE spectrograph (SG) is adequate to obtain full spectral information of these plasmoids. To achieve a sufficient signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) for ∼0.8 MK plasmoids in the MUSE/SG 171 Å channel, full-raster images are attainable for regions with electron densities above 109 cm−3, while sit-and-stare observations are recommended for lower-density regions. The future Solar-C mission could also capture these coronal plasmoids using the EUV High-Throughput Spectroscopic Telescope (EUVST), considering rapid changes in Doppler shift and line widths in different EUV lines caused by plasmoid motions along the current sheet.
Conclusions: With the combined spectra of MUSE/SG and Solar-C/EUVST in multiple emission lines, along with high-resolution images from SO/EUI-HRIEUV and MUSE/CI, it should be possible to gain new insights about plasmoid formation in the corona.

Movies associated to Figs. 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10-12 are available at https://www.aanda.org.