Static and dynamic solar coronal loops with cross-sectional area variations

The Enthalpy Based Thermal Evolution of Loops approximate model for static and dynamic coronal loops is developed to include the effect of a loop cross-sectional area which increases from the base of the transition region (TR) to the corona. The TR is defined as the part of a loop between the top of the chromosphere and the location where thermal conduction changes from an energy loss to an energy gain. There are significant differences from constant area loops due to the manner in which the reduced volume of the TR responds to conductive and enthalpy fluxes from the corona. For static loops with modest area variation the standard picture of loop energy balance is retained, with the corona and TR being primarily a balance between heating and conductive losses in the corona, and downward conduction and radiation to space in the TR. As the area at the loop apex increases, the TR becomes thicker and the density in TR and corona larger. For large apex areas, the coronal energy balance changes to one primarily between heating and radiation, with conduction playing an increasingly unimportant role, and the TR thickness becoming a significant fraction of the loop length. Approximate scaling laws are derived that give agreement with full numerical solutions for the density, but not the temperature. For non-uniform areas, dynamic loops have a higher peak temperature and are denser in the radiative cooling phase by of order 50 per cent than the constant area case for the examples considered. They also show a final rapid cooling and draining once the temperature approaches 1 MK. Although the magnitude of the emission measure will be enhanced in the radiative phase, there is little change in the important observational diagnostic of its temperature dependence

High resolution soft x-ray spectroscopy and the quest for the hot (5-10 MK) plasma in solar active regions

We discuss the diagnostics available to study the 5-10 MK plasma in the solar corona, which is key to understanding the heating in the cores of solar active regions. We present several simulated spectra, and show that excellent diagnostics are available in the soft X-rays, around 100 Angstroms, as six ionisation stages of Fe can simultaneously be observed, and electron densities derived, within a narrow spectral region. As this spectral range is almost unexplored, we present an analysis of available and simulated spectra, to compare the hot emission with the cooler component. We adopt recently designed multilayers to present estimates of count rates in the hot lines, with a baseline spectrometer design. Excellent count rates are found, opening up the exciting opportunity to obtain high-resolution spectroscopy of hot plasma

The FIELDS Instrument Suite for Solar Probe Plus: Measuring the Coronal Plasma and Magnetic Field, Plasma Waves and Turbulence, and Radio Signatures of Solar Transients.

NASA's Solar Probe Plus (SPP) mission will make the first in situ measurements of the solar corona and the birthplace of the solar wind. The FIELDS instrument suite on SPP will make direct measurements of electric and magnetic fields, the properties of in situ plasma waves, electron density and temperature profiles, and interplanetary radio emissions, amongst other things. Here, we describe the scientific objectives targeted by the SPP/FIELDS instrument, the instrument design itself, and the instrument concept of operations and planned data products

Highly structured slow solar wind emerging from an equatorial coronal hole

International audienceDuring the solar minimum, when the Sun is at its least active, the solar wind(1,2) is observed at high latitudes as a predominantly fast (more than 500 kilometres per second), highly Alfvenic rarefied stream of plasma originating from deep within coronal holes. Closer to the ecliptic plane, the solar wind is interspersed with a more variable slow wind(3) of less than 500 kilometres per second. The precise origins of the slow wind streams are less certain(4); theories and observations suggest that they may originate at the tips of helmet streamers(5,6), from interchange reconnection near coronal hole boundaries(7,8), or within coronal holes with highly diverging magnetic fields(9,10). The heating mechanism required to drive the solar wind is also unresolved, although candidate mechanisms include Alfven-wave turbulence(11,12), heating by reconnection in nanoflares(13), ion cyclotron wave heating(14) and acceleration by thermal gradients1. At a distance of one astronomical unit, the wind is mixed and evolved, and therefore much of the diagnostic structure of these sources and processes has been lost. Here we present observations from the Parker Solar Probe(15) at 36 to 54 solar radii that show evidence of slow Alfvenic solar wind emerging from a small equatorial coronal hole. The measured magnetic field exhibits patches of large, intermittent reversals that are associated with jets of plasma and enhanced Poynting flux and that are interspersed in a smoother and less turbulent flow with a near-radial magnetic field. Furthermore, plasma-wave measurements suggest the existence of electron and ion velocity-space micro-instabilities(10,16) that are associated with plasma heating and thermalization processes. Our measurements suggest that there is an impulsive mechanism associated with solar-wind energization and that micro-instabilities play a part in heating, and we provide evidence that low-latitude coronal holes are a key source of the slow solar wind

Solar rotation stereoscopy in microwaves

We present here the first stereoscopic altitude measurements of active region sources observed at microwave frequencies (10-14 GHz). The active region NOAA 7128 was observed with the Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) on 1992 April 13, 14, 15, and 16 as it passed through the central meridian. From white-light data of the underlying sunspot we determined the rotation rate of the active region, which was found to have a relative motion of dL/dt = +0°.240 day -1 with respect to the standard photospheric differential rotation rate. Based on this rotation rate we determine for the microwave sources stereoscopic altitudes of 3.3-11.0 Mm above the photosphere. The altitude spectrum h(vν) of the right circular polarization (RCP) main source shows a discontinuity at 12 GHz and can be satisfactorily fitted with a dipole model with a transition from the second to the third harmonic level at 12 GHz. The dominance of the third harmonic for frequencies above 12 GHz occurs because the second harmonic level drops below the transition region, at a height of 2.6 ± 0.6 Mm according to the microwave data. The altitude spectrum h(ν) serves also to invert the temperature profile T(h) from the optically thick parts of the radio brightness temperature spectrum T B(ν[h]). The microwave emission in both circular polarizations can be modeled with gyroresonance emission, with x-mode for RCP and o-mode in LCP, with the same harmonics at each frequency, but different emission angles in both modes. The contributions from free-free emission are negligible in both polarizations, based on the peak emission measure of EM ≈ 6 × 10 28 cm -5 observed in soft X-rays by Yohkoh/SXT. This study demonstrates that the height dependence of the coronal magnetic field B(h) and the plasma temperature T(h) in an active region can be inverted from the stereoscopic altitude spectra h(ν) and the observed brightness temperature spectra T B(V).link_to_subscribed_fulltex

The long-term evolution of AR 7978: The scalings of the coronal plasma parameters with the mean photospheric magnetic field

We analyze the evolution of the fluxes observed in X-rays and correlate them with the magnetic flux density in active region (AR) NOAA 7978 from its birth throughout its decay, for five solar rotations. We use Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) data, together with Yohkoh Soft X-Ray Telescope (SXT) and Yohkoh Bragg Crystal Spectrometer (BCS) data, to determine the global evolution of the temperature and the emission measure of the coronal plasma at times when no significant brightenings were observed. We show that the mean X-ray flux and derived parameters, temperature and emission measure ( together with other quantities deduced from them, such as the density and the pressure), of the plasma in the AR follow power-law relationships with the mean magnetic flux density ((B) over bar). The exponents (b) of these power-law functions (a (B) over bar (b)) are derived using two different statistical methods, a classical least-squares method in log-log plots and a nonparametric method, which takes into account the fact that errors in the data may not be normally distributed. Both methods give similar exponents, within error bars, for the mean temperature and for both instruments (SXT and BCS); in particular, b stays in the range [0.27, 0.31] and [0.24, 0.57] for full-resolution SXT images and BCS data, respectively. For the emission measure, the exponent b lies in the range [0.85, 1.35] and [0.45, 1.96] for SXT and BCS, respectively. The determination of such power-law relations, when combined with the results from coronal heating models, can provide us with powerful tools for determining the mechanism responsible for the existence of the high-temperature corona

The long-term evolution of AR 7978: Testing coronal heating models

We derive the dependence of the mean coronal heating rate on the magnetic flux density. Our results are based on a previous study of the plasma parameters and the magnetic flux density ((B) over bar) in the active region NOAA 7978 from its birth to its decay, throughout five solar rotations using the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Michelson Doppler Imager, Yohkoh Soft X-Ray Telescope (SXT), and Yohkoh Bragg Crystal Spectrometer (BCS). We use the scaling laws of coronal loops in thermal equilibrium to derive four observational estimates of the scaling of the coronal heating with (B) over bar (two from SXT and two from BCS observations). These results are used to test the validity of coronal heating models. We find that models based on the dissipation of stressed, current-carrying magnetic fields are in better agreement with the observations than models that attribute coronal heating to the dissipation of MHD waves injected at the base of the corona. This confirms, with smaller error bars, previous results obtained for individual coronal loops, as well as for the global coronal emission of the Sun and cool stars. Taking into account that the photospheric field is concentrated in thin magnetic flux tubes, both SXT and BCS data are in best agreement with models invoking a stochastic buildup of energy, current layers, and MHD turbulence