1,913 research outputs found
Spectroscopic Observations of Fe XVIII in Solar Active Regions
The large uncertainties associated with measuring the amount of high
temperature emission in solar active regions represents a significant
impediment to making progress on the coronal heating problem. Most current
observations at temperatures of 3 MK and above are taken with broad band soft
X-ray instruments. Such measurements have proven difficult to interpret
unambiguously. Here we present the first spectroscopic observations of the Fe
XVIII 974.86 AA emission line in an on-disk active region taken with then SUMER
instrument on SOHO. Fe XVIII has a peak formation temperature of 7.1 MK and
provides important constraints on the amount of impulsive heating in the
corona. Detailed evaluation of the spectra and comparison of the SUMER data
with soft X-ray images from the XRT on Hinode confirm that this line is
unblended. We also compare the spectroscopic data with observations from the
AIA 94 AA channel on SDO. The AIA 94 AA channel also contains Fe XVIII, but is
blended with emission formed at lower temperatures. We find that is possible to
remove the contaminating blends and form relatively pure Fe XVIII images that
are consistent with the spectroscopic observations from SUMER. The observed
spectra also contain the Ca XIV 943.63 AA line that, although a factor 2 to 6
weaker than the Fe XVIII 974.86 AA line, allows us to probe the plasma around
3.5 MK. The observed ratio between the two lines indicates (isothermal
approximation) that most of the plasma in the brighter Fe XVIII active region
loops is at temperatures between 3.5 and 4 MK.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures. Submitted as letter to Ap
The Magnetic Properties of Heating Events on High-Temperature Active Region Loops
Understanding the relationship between the magnetic field and coronal heating
is one of the central problems of solar physics. However, studies of the
magnetic properties of impulsively heated loops have been rare. We present
results from a study of 34 evolving coronal loops observed in the Fe XVIII line
component of AIA/SDO 94 A filter images from three active regions with
different magnetic conditions. We show that the peak intensity per unit
cross-section of the loops depends on their individual magnetic and geometric
properties. The intensity scales proportionally to the average field strength
along the loop () and inversely with the loop length () for a
combined dependence of . These loop properties are
inferred from magnetic extrapolations of the photospheric HMI/SDO line-of-sight
and vector magnetic field in three approximations: potential and two Non Linear
Force-Free (NLFF) methods. Through hydrodynamic modeling (EBTEL model) we show
that this behavior is compatible with impulsively heated loops with a
volumetric heating rate that scales as .Comment: Astrophysical Journal, in pres
The effect of intervertebral cartilage on neutral posture and range of motion in the necks of sauropod dinosaurs
The necks of sauropod dinosaurs were a key factor in their evolution. The habitual posture and range of motion of these necks has been controversial, and computer-aided studies have argued for an obligatory sub-horizontal pose. However, such studies are compromised by their failure to take into account the important role of intervertebral cartilage. This cartilage takes very different forms in different animals. Mammals and crocodilians have intervertebral discs, while birds have synovial joints in their necks. The form and thickness of cartilage varies significantly even among closely related taxa. We cannot yet tell whether the neck joints of sauropods more closely resembled those of birds or mammals. Inspection of CT scans showed cartilage:bone ratios of 4.5% for Sauroposeidon and about 20% and 15% for two juvenile Apatosaurus individuals. In extant animals, this ratio varied from 2.59% for the rhea to 24% for a juvenile giraffe. It is not yet possible to disentangle ontogenetic and taxonomic signals, but mammal cartilage is generally three times as thick as that of birds. Our most detailed work, on a turkey, yielded a cartilage:bone ratio of 4.56%. Articular cartilage also added 11% to the length of the turkey's zygapophyseal facets. Simple image manipulation suggests that incorporating 4.56% of neck cartilage into an intervertebral joint of a turkey raises neutral posture by 15°. If this were also true of sauropods, the true neutral pose of the neck would be much higher than has been depicted. An additional 11% of zygapophyseal facet length translates to 11% more range of motion at each joint. More precise quantitative results must await detailed modelling. In summary, including cartilage in our models of sauropod necks shows that they were longer, more elevated and more flexible than previously recognised
Towards a Quantitative Comparison of Magnetic Field Extrapolations and Observed Coronal Loops
It is widely believed that loops observed in the solar atmosphere trace out
magnetic field lines. However, the degree to which magnetic field
extrapolations yield field lines that actually do follow loops has yet to be
studied systematically. In this paper we apply three different extrapolation
techniques - a simple potential model, a NLFF model based on photospheric
vector data, and a NLFF model based on forward fitting magnetic sources with
vertical currents - to 15 active regions that span a wide range of magnetic
conditions. We use a distance metric to assess how well each of these models is
able to match field lines to the 12,202 loops traced in coronal images. These
distances are typically 1-2". We also compute the misalignment angle between
each traced loop and the local magnetic field vector, and find values of
5-12. We find that the NLFF models generally outperform the potential
extrapolation on these metrics, although the differences between the different
extrapolations are relatively small. The methodology that we employ for this
study suggests a number of ways that both the extrapolations and loop
identification can be improved.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap
Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment (LACIE). Level 3 baseline; LACIE Information Evaluation (IE) implementation/operations plan
There are no author-identified significant results in this report
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