On the Size of Structures in the Solar Corona

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arXiv:astro-ph/0610178v3 22 Feb 2007OnTheSizeofStructuresintheSolarCoronaC.E.DeForestSouthwestResearchInstitute[Inpress,ApJ-est.2007June]

ABSTRACTFine-scalestructureinthecoronaappearsnottobewellresolvedbycurrentimaginginstruments.Assumingthistobetrueoffersasimplegeometricexplanationforseveralcurrentpuzzlesincoronalphysics,including:theapparentuniformcross-sectionofbrightthreadlikestructuresinthecorona;thelowEUVcontrast(longapparentscaleheight)betweenthetopandbottomofactiveregionloops;andtheinconsistencybetweenloopdensitiesderivedbyspectralandphotometricmeans.Treatingcoronalloopsasamixtureofdiffusebackgroundandverydense,unresolvedfilamentarystructuresaddresstheseproblemswithacombinationofhighplasmadensitywithinthestructures,whichgreatlyincreasestheemissivityofthestructures,andgeometriceffectsthatattenuatetheapparentbrightnessofthefeatureatlowaltitudes.ItalsosuggestsapossibleexplanationforboththesurprisinglyhighcontrastofEUVcoronalloopsagainstthecoronalbackground,andtheuniform“typical”heightofthebrightportionofthecorona(about0.3R⊙)infull-diskEUVimages.Someramificationsofthispicturearediscussed,includinganestimate(10-100km)ofthefundamentalscaleofstrongheatingeventsinthecorona.

Subjectheadings:Sun:corona1.IntroductionSincetheintroductionofEUVcoronalimaging,brightcoronalloopshavebeenseentohaveuniformthickness;severalexamplesareillustratedinFigure1.Becausecoronalbrightstructuresarethoughttobemagneticallyconfined,thisisasurprisingresult.Uniform-thicknessfluxbundlesrequireconstantmagneticfieldstrengthalongthefeature;thisimpliesthattall,uniform-thicknessbrightstructuresinthecoronamustsomehowbeconfinednotonlyagainstgaspressure,butalsoagainstmagneticpressure.Muchrecentworkhasbeendevotedtounderstandingthephysicsofthesestructures,andseveraltermshavebeenusedtodescribethem.Isuggest“thread”asapurelyobservationaltermtorefertothin,curvilinearfeaturessuchasmaybeseenintheimageplaneofasolarinstrument,avoidinganyparticularphysicalmodelforthecorrespondingcoronalstructure;phrasessuchas“filamentarystructure”,“fluxtube”,or“elementarystructure”,whichthemselvescarrysomeimplicitmeaningaboutthephysics,maythenbeusedtodescribethestructureinthecoronaitself.Furthermore,throughoutthisarticleIrefertoobjectsintheimageplaneofatelescopeas“features”andobjectsinthesolarcoronaas“structures”.Thinthreadfeaturesarenearlyalwaysseenembeddedinlargercoronalfeatures(forexampleactiveregionloops)thatexpandwithaltitudeasexpectedfromforce-freeorpotentialfieldlines,butthesmallestthreadsveryclearlyhaveuniformthicknessinsolar

EUVimages.Considerableefforthasbeenputintounderstandingthephysicsofthecorrespondingsolarstructures.AschwandenandNitta(2000)pointedoutthatinhomogeneousstructurecaninfluencetheionizationtemperaturegradientinferredviafilter-ratioordifferentialemission-measuretechniquesappliedtoEUVimagefeatures.ComparisonofTRACE-visibleactiveregionloopstosimplehydrostaticatmosphericmodelsshowsthatthetopsoftallthreadedloopsseemoverdensebyafactorofupto100comparedtohydrostaticsolutionsor,equivalently,thatthethreadshaveapparentintensityscaleheightsmuchlongerthanthecalculatedthermalscaleheightinthecorona(e.g.Doyleetal.1985;AschwandenandNitta2000;Winebargeretal.2003;Fuentesetal.2006).Supportingalonger-than-thermaldensityscaleheightoversuchrangesrequiresextrememeasures,suchasballisticsiphonflowsorwavepressure,thatarenotreflectedinthespectraldata.Simplecalculationshowsthatdoublingthedensityscaleheightofa0.2R⊙tallstructurerequiresabasalspeedofover150kmsec−1,comparedtotypicalactiveregionloopDopplershiftsofonly20-100kmsec−1

asobservedwithSOHO/CDS(Fredviketal.2002).Tallerstructuresormoreuniformdensityprofilesrequireevenhigherspeedsforsuchsupport.TheemissionfromsomeofthesefilamentarystructureshasbeenidentifiedbyAschwandenandNightingale(2005)asnearlythermallyhomogeneous,leadingthoseauthorstoidentifysomeparticularlycleanlypresentedthreadsas“el-ementary”coronalstructureshavinguniformcross-section

1Fig.1.—LimbimagesatthesamespatialscalefromfourdifferentUVimagersdemonstratethelong-observedconstant-widthappearanceofcoronalloops.Theapparentconstantwidthvariesfrominstrumenttoinstrument.ItisduetoresolutioneffectsindatafromtheSkylab“overlappograph”(Touseyetal.1977;Feldman1987)at˜8”,theMulti-SpectralSolarTelescopeArray(Walkeretal.1991)at˜10”,andtheExtreme-UltravioletImagingTelescope(Delaboudiniereetal.(1995))at5”.IarguethattheTransitionRegionandCoronalExplorer(Handyetal.1998),thehighestresolutionexistingEUVimagerat˜1”,alsodoesnotresolvethefilamentarystructurewithinactiveregions.