Doppler shifts in active region moss using soho/sumer

Abstract

The velocity of the plasma at the footpoint of hot loops in active region cores can be used to discriminate between different heating frequencies. Velocities on the order of a few kilometers per second would indicate low-frequency heating on sub-resolution strands, while velocities close to zero would indicate high-frequency (steady) heating. To discriminate between these two values requires accurate velocity measurements; previous velocity measurements suffer from large uncertainties, mainly due to the lack of an absolute wavelength reference scale. In this paper, we determine the velocity in the loop footpoints using observations from Solar Ultraviolet Measurements of Emitted Radiation (SUMER) on Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. We use neutral spectral lines to determine the wavelength scale of the observations with an uncertainty in the absolute velocity of <3.5 km s-1 and co-aligned Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) images to identify footpoint regions. We studied three different active regions and found average redshifts in the Ne VIII 770 Å emission line (formed at 6 × 105 K) of 5.17 ± 5.37 km s-1 and average redshifts in the C IV 1548 and 1550 Å emission lines (formed at 1 × 105 K) of 13.94 ± 4.93 km s-1 and 14.91 ± 6.09 km s-1, respectively. We find no correlation between the brightness in the spectral line and the measured velocity, nor do we find correlation between the Ne VIII and C IV velocities measured co-spatially and co-temporally. SUMER scanned two of the active regions twice; in those active regions we find positive correlation between the co-spatial velocities measured during the first and second scans. These results provide definitive and quantitative measurements for comparisons with simulations of different coronal heating mechanisms. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..