The Submillimeter Active Region Excess Brightness Temperature during Solar Cycles 23 and 24

TL;DR

This study examines the variation of excess brightness temperature in solar active regions at submillimeter wavelengths during solar cycles 23 and 24, revealing strong correlations with sunspot numbers and insights into chromospheric thermal emissions.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of the temporal evolution of submillimeter excess brightness temperature in active regions across two solar cycles, highlighting its correlation with magnetic activity.

Findings

Strong correlation between excess brightness temperature and sunspot number.

Spectral index remains nearly constant, indicating optically thick thermal emission.

Correlation coefficients increase when focusing solely on Cycle 24.

Abstract

We report the temporal evolution of the excess brightness temperature above solar active regions (ARs) observed with the Solar Submillimeter Telescope (SST) at 212 ({\lambda} = 1.4 mm) and 405 GHz ({\lambda} = 0.7 mm) during Cycles 23 and 24. Comparison with the sunspot number (SSN) yields a Pearson's correlation coefficient R = 0.88 and 0.74 for 212 and 405 GHz, respectively. Moreover, when only Cycle 24 is taken into account the correlation coefficients go to 0.93 and 0.81 for each frequency. We derive the spectral index {\alpha} between SST frequencies and found a slight anti-correlation with the SSN (R = -0.25); however, since the amplitude of the variation is lower than the standard deviation we cannot draw a definite conclusion. Indeed, {\alpha} remains almost constant within the uncertainties with a median value approximate to 0 characteristic of an optically thick thermal source. Since the origin of the AR submillimeter radiation is thermal continuum produced at chromospheric heights, the strong correlation between the excess brightness temperature and the magnetic cycle evolution could be related to the available free magnetic energy to be released in reconnection events.