Statistical Study of Emerging Flux Regions and the Upper Atmosphere Response

TL;DR

This study statistically analyzes emerging flux regions on the Sun and their impact on the upper atmosphere, revealing correlations between flux emergence parameters and atmospheric heating at different wavelengths.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive statistical characterization of flux emergence properties and their temporal response in the solar atmosphere using SDO data.

Findings

Total emerged flux ranges from 0.44 to 11.2×10^{19} Mx.

Atmospheric response occurs first in chromospheric lines, then in coronal lines.

Emergence duration correlates positively with flux and area.

Abstract

We statistically study the property of emerging flux regions (EFRs) and the upper solar atmosphere response to the flux emergence by using data from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Parameters including the total emerged flux, the flux growth rate, the maximum area, the duration of the emergence and the separation speed of the opposite polarities are adopted to delineate the property of the EFRs. The response of the upper atmosphere is addressed by the response of the atmosphere at different wavelengths (and thus at different temperatures). According to our results, the total emerged fluxes are in the range of (0.44 -- 11.2)$\times10^{19}$ Mx while the maximum area ranges from 17 to 182 arcsec$^2$. The durations of the emergence are between 1 and 12 hours, which are positively correlated to both the total emerged flux and the maximum area. The maximum distances between the opposite polarities are 7 -- 25 arcsec and are also correlated to the duration positively. The separation speeds are from 0.05 to 1.08 km s$^{-1}$, negatively correlated to the duration. The derived flux growth rates are (0.1 -- 1.3)$\times10^{19}$ Mx hr$^{-1}$, which are positively correlated to the total emerging flux. The upper atmosphere responds to the flux emergence in the 1600\AA\ chromospheric line first, and then tens and hundreds of seconds later, in coronal lines, such as the 171\AA\ (T=10$^{5.8}$ K) and 211\AA\ (T=10$^{6.3}$ K) lines almost simultaneously, suggesting the successively heating of atmosphere from the chromosphere to the corona.