Constraints on the heating of high-temperature active region loops: Observations from hinode and the solar dynamics observatory

Abstract

We present observations of high-temperature emission in the core of a solar active region using instruments on Hinode and the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). These multi-instrument observations allow us to determine the distribution of plasma temperatures and follow the evolution of emission at different temperatures. We find that at the apex of the high-temperature loops the emission measure distribution is strongly peaked near 4 MK and falls off sharply at both higher and lower temperatures. Perhaps most significantly, the emission measure at 0.5 MK is reduced by more than two orders of magnitude from the peak at 4 MK. We also find that the temporal evolution in broadband soft X-ray images is relatively constant over about 6 hr of observing. Observations in the cooler SDO/Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) bandpasses generally do not show cooling loops in the core of the active region, consistent with the steady emission observed at high temperatures. These observations suggest that the high-temperature loops observed in the core of an active region are close to equilibrium. We find that it is possible to reproduce the relative intensities of high-temperature emission lines with a simple, high-frequency heating scenario where heating events occur on timescales much less than a characteristic cooling time. In contrast, low-frequency heating scenarios, which are commonly invoked to describe nanoflare models of coronal heating, do not reproduce the relative intensities of high-temperature emission lines and predict low-temperature emission that is approximately an order of magnitude too large. We also present an initial look at images from the SDO/AIA 94Å channel, which is sensitive to Fe XVIII. © 2011. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.