HR: 0800h
AN: SH21A-0294    [Abstracts]
TI: Comparing Coronal Heating Models by Using Their Implied EUV and Soft X-ray Emissions
AU: * Mok, Y
EM: ymok@uci.edu
AF: University of California, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Irvine, CA 92697, United States
AU: Lionello, R
EM: lionel@imhd.net
AF: Science Applications International Corp., 10260 Campus Point Dr., San Diego, CA 92121, United States
AU: Mikic, Z
EM: mikicz@saic.com
AF: Science Applications International Corp., 10260 Campus Point Dr., San Diego, CA 92121, United States
AU: Linker, J A
EM: linkerj@saic.com
AF: Science Applications International Corp., 10260 Campus Point Dr., San Diego, CA 92121, United States
AB: The plasma heating mechanism that maintains the coronal temperature remains poorly understood after decades of research. There have been numerous theoretical models, but none of them has been confirmed by observations. Each model has a different parametric dependence on physical quantities, such as the local magnetic field, plasma density, etc. Due to these differences, they imply different thermal structures in the solar atmosphere, leading to different characteristics in electromagnetic emissions. In this study, we examine these heating models by comparing their predicted extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and soft X-ray emissions with available observations. We use an active region as a testing ground, partly because of its brightness, and partly because its complex magnetic field can reveal the unique features of each model. From the heat source, we compute the thermal structure in the neighborhood of the active region in 3D for each model. A synthetic emission image is then computed and compared with observations.
DE: 7509 Corona
DE: 7549 Ultraviolet emissions
SC: SPA-Solar and Heliospheric Physics [SH]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting