Study of the EUV intensity variation along observed coronal loops

MARCELO LÓPEZ FUENTES; JAMES KLIMCHUK

Tandil

Congreso; 56a Reunión Anual de la Asociación Argentina de Astronomía; 2013

Asociación Argentina de Astronomía

The variation of intensity along coronal loops observed in X-rays and EUV can be used to constrain different coronal heating theories.For instance, thermal nonequilibrium that results from heating located atthe footpoints of the loops predicts an intensity structure that is highlynon uniform and asymmetric. We study the intensity variation alongcoronal loops observed with the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer(TRACE) in the 171  A channel and find that loops present pronouncedA spatial fluctuations. Although during the data processing we carefullysubtract the background contribution, part of the observed fluctuationsis due to a residual effect of this contribution. Even allowing for theimperfect background subtraction, we conclude that most of the analyzedobservations are inconsistent with the intensity profiles predicted by some numerical models.