EUV emission along observed coronal loops

M. LÓPEZ FUENTES; J. A. KLIMCHUK

Moscú

Congreso; 40th COSPAR Scientific Assembly 2014; 2014

Committee on Space Research (COSPAR)

Theories based on steady heating concentrated at the footpoints of coronal loops predict a state of thermal nonequilibrium which produce, according to numerical studies, highly asymmetric intensity profiles. In this work we study a series of coronal loop observations obtained with the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) and the Atmospheric Imager Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) to explore how the intensity varies with position along the loops. As part of the data processing we apply a careful procedure to subtract the background contribution to the loop intensity. We find that the obtained intrinsicintensities have strong variations over short distances, due in part to aresidual effect of the intense nonuniform background. Although it is not easy to separate the background contribution from the proper loop intensity fluctuations, our results show that in the majority of the cases the intensity structure is not consistent with the predicted profiles.