Spectroscopy of very hot plasma in non-flaring parts of a solar limb active region: spatial and temporal properties

TL;DR

This study analyzes the thermal structure of a non-flaring solar active region, revealing persistent very hot plasma (>3 MK) and providing insights into heating mechanisms through spectral analysis of Fe and Ca emission lines.

Contribution

It offers the first detailed analysis of very hot plasma in non-flaring solar active regions using a comprehensive spectral dataset and introduces a new atomic model for Ca XIV.

Findings

Very hot plasma (>3 MK) is present and persistent in the core of the limb active region.

Plasma at 10 MK is detected with EM down to 0.1% of the main 3 MK plasma.

The hot tail of the EM follows a power law index between -8.5 and -4.4.

Abstract

In this work we investigate the thermal structure of an off-limb active region in various non-flaring areas, as it provides key information on the way these structures are heated. In particular, we concentrate in the very hot component (>3 MK) as it is a crucial element to discriminate between different heating mechanisms. We present an analysis using Fe and Ca emission lines from both SOHO/SUMER and HINODE/EIS. A dataset covering all ionization stages from Fe X to Fe XIX has been used for the thermal analysis (both DEM and EM). Ca XIV is used for the SUMER-EIS radiometric cross-calibration. We show how the very hot plasma is present and persistent almost everywhere in the core of the limb AR. The off-limb AR is clearly structured in Fe XVIII. Almost everywhere, the EM analysis reveals plasma at 10 MK (visible in Fe XIX emission) which is down to 0.1% of EM of the main 3 MK plasma. We estimate the power law index of the hot tail of the EM to be between -8.5 and -4.4. However, we leave an open question on the possible existence of a small minor peak at around 10 MK. The absence in some part of the AR of Fe XIX and Fe XXIII lines (which fall into our spectral range) enables us to determine an upper limit on the EM at such temperatures. Our results include a new Ca XIV 943.59 \AA~ atomic model.