Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Nanoflare Heating During Active Region Evolution

TL;DR

This study models nanoflare heating in solar active regions using a data-driven hydrodynamic approach, revealing how different nanoflare frequencies contribute to coronal heating during various AR evolution stages.

Contribution

It introduces a novel data-driven simulation framework linking nanoflare frequencies to AR evolution and spatial heating patterns.

Findings

High-frequency nanoflares cause cool emissions in AR.

Low- and intermediate-frequency nanoflares dominate hot emissions.

Heating frequency distribution varies with AR evolution stage and location.

Abstract

Nanoflares are believed to be key contributors to heating solar non-flaring active regions, though their individual detection remains challenging. This study uses a data-driven field-aligned hydrodynamic model to examine nanoflare properties throughout the lifecycle of AR12758. We simulate coronal loop emissions, where each loop is heated by random nanoflares depending on the loop parameters derived from photospheric magnetograms observed by SDO/HMI. Simulated X-ray flux and temperature can reproduce the temporal variations observed by Chandrayaan-2/XSM. Our findings show that high-frequency nanoflares contribute to cool emissions across the AR, while low- and intermediate- frequency primarily contribute to hot emissions. During the emerging phase, energy deposition is dominated by low-frequency events. Post-emergence, energy is deposited by both low- and intermediate-frequency nanoflares, while as the AR ages, the contribution from intermediate- and high-frequency nanoflares increases. The spatial distribution of heating frequencies across the AR reveals a clear pattern: the core of the active region spends most of its time in a low-frequency heating state, the periphery is dominated by high-frequency heating, and the region between the core and periphery experiences intermediate-frequency heating.