Emerging dimmings of active regions observed by the solar dynamics observatory

Abstract

Using the observations from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly and the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory, we statistically investigate the emerging dimmings (EDs) of 24 isolated active regions (IARs) from 2010 June to 2011 May. All the IARs show EDs in lower-temperature lines (e.g., 171 Å) at their early emerging stages. Meanwhile, in higher temperature lines (e.g., 211 Å), the ED regions brighten continuously. There are two types of EDs: fan-shaped and halo-shaped. There are 19 fan-shaped EDs and 5 halo-shaped ones. The EDs appear to be delayed by several to more than ten hours relative to the first emergence of the IARs. The shortest delay is 3.6 hr and the longest is 19.0 hr. The EDs last from 3.3 hr to 14.2 hr, with a mean duration of 8.3 hr. Before the appearance of the EDs, the emergence rate of the magnetic flux of the IARs is between 1.2 × 1019 Mx hr-1 to 1.4 × 1020 Mx hr -1. The larger the emergence rate is, the shorter the delay time is. While the dimmings appear, the magnetic flux of the IARs ranges from 8.8 × 1019 Mx to 1.3 × 1021 Mx. These observations imply that the reconfiguration of the coronal magnetic fields due to reconnection between the newly emerging flux and the surrounding existing fields results in a new thermal distribution which leads to a dimming for the cooler channel (171 Å) and brightening in the warmer channels. © 2012. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.