Coronal Magnetography of a Solar Active Region Using Coordinated SERTS and VLA Observations

Details Coronal Magnetography of a Solar Active Region Using Coordinated SERTS and VLA Observations Coronal Magnetography of a Solar Active Region Using Coordinated SERTS and VLA Observations

Oct 1997

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997apj...488..488b&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal v.488, p.488

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

25

Sun: Activity, Sun: Corona, Sun: Magnetic Fields, Sun: Radio Radiation, Sun: Uv Radiation

Scientific paper

We observed NOAA region 7563 simultaneously with Goddard Space Flight Center's Solar EUV Rocket Telescope and Spectrograph (SERTS) and with the Very Large Array (VLA) on 1993 August 17. SERTS obtained spectra in the 280--420 A wavelength range, and images in the lines of Mg IX lambda 368.1, Fe XV lambda 284.1, and Fe XVI lambda 335.4. The VLA obtained microwave images at 20 and 6 cm wavelengths. The microwave emission depends upon the coronal temperature, density, column emission measure, and magnetic field; therefore, the coronal magnetic field can be derived when all of these other quantities are measured. Here we demonstrate this approach by using the SERTS data to derive all the relevant plasma parameters and then fitting the radio observations to a magnetic field model in order to determine the magnetic field structure. We used the method of Monsignori-Fossi & Landini and the coronal elemental abundances of Feldman et al. to derive the differential emission measure (DEM) curve for region 7563 from numerous EUV emission lines in spatially averaged SERTS spectra. A similar curve was estimated for each point (i.e., each pixel or each spatial location) in the two-dimensional region by scaling the average DEM curve with corresponding pixel intensities in the Mg IX, Fe XV, and Fe XVI images. We integrated each such DEM over narrow temperature ranges to obtain the column emission measure (CEM) as a function of temperature, CEM(T). We also obtained electron density measurements from EUV line intensity ratios in the spatially averaged spectrum for several ionization stages of iron. These were used to derive a functional relation between density and temperature, ne(T). We derived the temperature dependence of the coronal magnetic field [B(T)] at each point in the two-dimensional region by incorporating CEM(T) and ne(T) into expressions for the thermal bremsstrahlung and the gyroresonance opacities, and varying B(T) so as to minimize the difference between the calculated and the observed microwave intensities. The resulting calculated 20 and 6 cm microwave intensity images reproduce the observed images very well. We found that thermal bremsstrahlung alone is not sufficient to produce the observed microwave intensities: gyroemission is required. Further, contrary to several earlier studies, we found no evidence for cool, absorbing plasma in the solar corona above the active region. The coronal magnetic fields derived with our method typically exceed the coronal fields extrapolated with a simple potential model, suggesting the presence of coronal electric currents. However, in the diminutive sunspot which dominates the 6 cm emission this difference is relatively small, suggesting that the sunspot magnetic field itself is nearly potential. Although we cannot firmly establish the uniqueness of our solution in this particular case, the method is quite powerful and should be repeated with other similar data sets. Variations in the coronal elemental abundances could affect the determination of the microwave emission mechanism(s), introduce evidence for the presence of cool coronal plasma, and alter the strengths of the derived coronal magnetic fields.

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