Constraints on the Heating of High Temperature Active Region Loops: Observations from Hinode and SDO

TL;DR

This study uses Hinode and SDO observations to analyze high-temperature plasma in solar active region loops, finding they are near equilibrium and favoring high-frequency heating models over low-frequency nanoflare scenarios.

Contribution

It provides observational evidence supporting high-frequency heating as the primary mechanism for high-temperature active region loops, contrasting with traditional nanoflare models.

Findings

High temperature emission peaks near 4 MK with sharp fall-off at higher and lower temperatures.

Emission measure at 0.5 MK is over two orders of magnitude lower than at 4 MK.

Steady high-temperature emission suggests loops are close to equilibrium.

Abstract

We present observations of high temperature emission in the core of a solar active region using instruments on Hinode and SDO. These multi-instrument observations allow us to determine the distribution of plasma temperatures and follow the evolution of emission at different temperatures. We find that at the apex of the high temperature loops the emission measure distribution is strongly peaked near 4 MK and falls off sharply at both higher and lower temperatures. Perhaps most significantly, the emission measure at 0.5 MK is reduced by more than two orders of magnitude from the peak at 4 MK. We also find that the temporal evolution in broad-band soft X-ray images is relatively constant over about 6 hours of observing. Observations in the cooler SDO/AIA bandpasses generally do not show cooling loops in the core of the active region, consistent with the steady emission observed at high temperatures. These observations suggest that the high temperature loops observed in the core of an active region are close to equilibrium. We find that it is possible to reproduce the relative intensities of high temperature emission lines with a simple, high-frequency heating scenario where heating events occur on time scales much less than a cooling time. In contrast, low-frequency heating scenarios, which are commonly invoked to describe nanoflare models of coronal heating, do not reproduce the relative intensities of high temperature emission lines and predict low-temperature emission that is approximately an order of magnitude too large. We also present an initial look at images from the SDO/AIA 94 A channel, which is sensitive to Fe XVIII.