Small Fluctuations of Coronal X-ray Intensity: A Signature of Nanoflares

Computer Science

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Scientific paper

If small energy events (nanoflares) contribute to the heating of the solar corona, they may be too small to be recognized as independent events. We analyze fluctuation of X-ray intensity observed with Soft X-Ray Telescope (SXT) aboard Yohkoh satellite to detect the tiny events which may occur in the solar corona. When we create a simple histogram of the X-Ray intensity fluctuation around mean intensity, we find that the histogram consists of a central Gaussian component and a wing component. The Gaussian component corresponds to random fluctuation around the mean X-ray intensity. The width of this component becomes broader with increasing intensity, and is larger than the width of the predicted photon noise distribution. We suggest that nanoflares produce the observed fluctuation of the X-ray intensity. We derive the analytical expression for the intensity fluctuation to estimate the individual energy of nanoflares from the observed intensity fluctuation. The intensity fluctuation can be related with the mean X-ray intensity, the energy of nanoflares, and the time scale of individual nanoflares. By comparing the observed fluctuation with the analytical expression, we are able to estimate the individual energy of nanoflares. The estimated energy ranges from 1020 to 1023 ergs. The observed fluctuation corresponds to an energy much smaller than previously predicted energy. It is estimated that if the energy of nanoflares is 1021 ergs, then these nanoflares must occur at a rate of 105 s-1 in a single active region (sim 1020 cm2) to supply the required energy (~ 5 times 107 ergs cm-2s-1) to maintain the solar corona.

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