Tracing the Chromospheric and Coronal Magnetic Field with AIA, IRIS, IBIS, and ROSA Data

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that high-resolution chromospheric images effectively trace magnetic field structures in active regions, providing valuable data that complement coronal observations for improved magnetic modeling.

Contribution

It introduces a method to use chromospheric images for magnetic field modeling, showing their structures align well with magnetic field lines and improve energy estimates.

Findings

Chromospheric images reveal well-defined, field-aligned structures.

Magnetic field lines from chromospheric data have a median misalignment of 4-7 degrees.

Chromospheric data suggest higher free magnetic energy than coronal data.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to explore the suitability of chromospheric images for magnetic modeling of active regions. We use high-resolution images (0.1") from the Interferometric Bidimensional Spectrometer (IBIS) in the Ca II 8542 A line, the Rapid Oscillations in the Solar Atmosphere (ROSA) instrument in the H-alpha 6563 A line, the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) in the 2796 A line, and compare non-potential magnetic field models obtained from those chromospheric images with those obtained from images of the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) in coronal (171 A, etc.) and in chromospheric (304 A) wavelengths. Curvi-linear structures are automatically traced in those images with the OCCULT-2 code, to which we forward-fitted magnetic field lines computed with the Vertical-Current Approximation Non-Linear Force Free Field (VCA-NLFFF) code. We find that the chromospheric images: (1) reveal crisp curvi-linear structures (fibrils, loop segments, spicules) that are extremely well-suited for constraining magnetic modeling; (2) that these curvi-linear structures are field-aligned with the best-fit solution by a median misalignment angle of ~4-7 deg; (3) the free energy computed from coronal data may underestimate that obtained from cromospheric data by a factor of ~ 2-4, (4) the height range of chromospheric features is confined to h ~ 4000$ km, while coronal features are detected up to h ~ 35,000$ km; and (5) the plasma-beta parameter is beta ~ 10^(-5)-10^(-1) for all traced features. We conclude that chromospheric images reveal important magnetic structures that are complementary to coronal images and need to be included in comprehensive magnetic field models, a quest that is not accomodated in standard NLFFF codes.