  We study the modes and stability of non - isothermal coronal loop models with
different intensity values of the equilibrium magnetic field. We use an energy
principle obtained via non - equilibrium thermodynamic arguments. The principle
is expressed in terms of Hermitian operators and allow to consider together the
coupled system of equations: the balance of energy equation and the equation of
motion. We determine modes characterized as long - wavelength disturbances that
are present in inhomogeneous media. This character of the system introduces
additional difficulties for the stability analysis because the inhomogeneous
nature of the medium determines the structure of the disturbance, which is no
longer sinusoidal. Moreover, another complication is that we obtain a
continuous spectrum of stable modes in addition to the discrete one. We obtain
a unique unstable mode with a characteristic time that is comparable with the
characteristic life-time observed for loops. The feasibility of wave-based and
flow-based models is examined.

Astrophysics