DETECTING NANOFLARE HEATING EVENTS IN SUBARCSECOND INTER-MOSS LOOPS USING Hi-C

Journal Article · Mon Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2013 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/771/1/21· OSTI ID:22140234

Winebarger, Amy R.; Moore, Ronald; Cirtain, Jonathan ^[1]; Walsh, Robert W. ^[2]; De Pontieu, Bart; Title, Alan ^[3]; Hansteen, Viggo ^[4]; Golub, Leon; Korreck, Kelly; Weber, Mark ^[5]; Kobayashi, Ken ^[6]; DeForest, Craig ^[7]; Kuzin, Sergey ^[8]

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1. NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, ZP 13, Huntsville, AL 35812 (United States)
2. University of Central Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire PR1 2HE (United Kingdom)
3. Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Lab, 3251 Hanover St., Org. A0215, Bldg. 252, Palo Alto, CA 94304 (United States)
4. Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1029 Blindern, N-0315 Oslo (Norway)
5. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
6. Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research, University of Alabama in Huntsville, 320 Sparkman Dr, Huntsville, AL 35805 (United States)
7. Southwest Research Institute, 1050 Walnut Street, Suite 300, Boulder, CO 80302 (United States)
8. P.N. Lebedev Physical institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninskii prospekt 53 119991, Moscow (Russian Federation)

The High-resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) flew aboard a NASA sounding rocket on 2012 July 11 and captured roughly 345 s of high-spatial and temporal resolution images of the solar corona in a narrowband 193 A channel. In this paper, we analyze a set of rapidly evolving loops that appear in an inter-moss region. We select six loops that both appear in and fade out of the Hi-C images during the short flight. From the Hi-C data, we determine the size and lifetimes of the loops and characterize whether these loops appear simultaneously along their length or first appear at one footpoint before appearing at the other. Using co-aligned, co-temporal data from multiple channels of the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on the Solar Dynamics Observatory, we determine the temperature and density of the loops. We find the loops consist of cool ({approx}10{sup 5} K), dense ({approx}10{sup 10} cm{sup -3}) plasma. Their required thermal energy and their observed evolution suggest they result from impulsive heating similar in magnitude to nanoflares. Comparisons with advanced numerical simulations indicate that such dense, cold and short-lived loops are a natural consequence of impulsive magnetic energy release by reconnection of braided magnetic field at low heights in the solar atmosphere.

• OSTI ID: 22140234
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 771; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
CAPTURE
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DENSITY
HEATING
IMAGES
LIFETIME
MAGNETIC FIELDS
NASA
RESOLUTION
SOLAR CORONA
SOUND WAVES
SUN