Electron density of active region outflows measured by the EUV Imaging Spectrometer onboard Hinode

TL;DR

This study measures electron densities in active region outflows using EUV spectroscopy, revealing regional differences and potential roles in coronal mass supply and leakage.

Contribution

It introduces a method to separate and analyze electron densities of different outflow components using double-Gaussian fitting and density-sensitive line ratios.

Findings

Electron densities are approximately 10^9.16 and 10^8.74 cm^-3 for major and EBW components.

Regional differences show opposite density relationships between eastern and western outflows.

Western outflows likely represent mass leakage, eastern outflows may supply mass to coronal loops.

Abstract

In order to better understand the nature of active region outflows, the electron density was measured by using a density-sensitive line pair Fe xiv 264.78A/274.20A.Since coronal line profiles of the outflow region are composed of a major component with a Doppler shift of < 10 km s^-1 and a minor component (enhanced blue wing: EBW) blueshifted by up to 100 km s^-1, we extracted EBW from the line profiles through double-Gaussian fitting. We tried applying the simultaneous fitting to those two Fe xiv lines with several physical restrictions. Electron density for both components (n_Major and n_EBW, respectively) was calculated by referring to the theoretical intensity ratio as a function of electron density as per the CHIANTI database. We studied six locations in the outflow regions around NOAA AR10978. The average electron density was n_Major = 10^(9.16 +- 0.16) cm^-3 and n_EBW = 10^(8.74 +- 0.29) cm^-3. The magnitude relationship between n_Major and n_EBW was opposite in the eastern and western outflow regions. The column depth was also calculated for each component, which leads to the result that the outflows possess only a small fraction (~ 0.1) in the eastern region, while they dominate over the major component in the line profiles by a factor of five in the western region. When taking into account the extending coronal structures, the western region can be thought to represent the mass leakage. In contrast, we suggest a possibility that the eastern region actually contributes to the mass supply to coronal loops.