2020/10/27 by L. P. Chitta, H. Peter, E. R. Priest +1
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Physics and Astronomy · #Corona (planetary geology) #Coronal hole #Coronal loop #Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism Studies #Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics #Magnetic field #Magnetic reconnection #Nanoflares #Plasma #Polarity (international relations) #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #Solar prominence #Spectrograph #astro-ph.SR #physics.plasm-ph #physics.space-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202039099
published as A&A 644, A130 (2020) · Published in Astronomy & Astrophysics. Online movies available at https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/olm/2020/12/aa39099-20/aa39099-20.html
openalex publication_date 2020/10/27 · openalex created_date 2020/10/29 · arxiv created 2020/12/17 · arxiv updated 2020/12/21 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Coronal plasma in the cores of solar active regions is impulsively heated to more than 5 MK. The nature and location of the magnetic energy source responsible for such impulsive heating is poorly understood. Using observations of seven active regions from the Solar Dynamics Observatory, we found that a majority of coronal loops hosting hot plasma have at least one footpoint rooted in regions of interacting mixed magnetic polarity at the solar surface. In cases when co-temporal observations from the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph space mission are available, we found spectroscopic evidence for magnetic reconnection at the base of the hot coronal loops. Our analysis suggests that interactions of magnetic patches of opposite polarity at the solar surface and the associated energy release during reconnection are key to impulsive coronal heating.