SH31B-2424
Exploration and Parameter Study of Active Region Luminosity
Wednesday, 16 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Amber Lenon, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, United States, Samaiyah Farid, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL, United States, Amy R Winebarger, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL, United States and David Allen Falconer, National Space Science and Technology Center, Huntsville, AL, United States
Abstract:
Coronal heating increases significantly with the strength of the magnetic field. This can be seen in coronal x-ray emission of sunspot active regions, as those are notably brighter than the rest of the corona. Fisher et al, using the Yohkoh Soft X-Ray Telescope (SXT) found a linear relationship between luminosity and total unsigned magnetic flux (neither positive or negative). However, for some active regions of the same magnetic flux, luminosity varied by up to an order of magnitude. In this study using Hinode X-Ray Telescope (XRT) and Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO) Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA), we examined active regions of the same magnetic flux to compare the luminosity and a variety of other parameters. We compared luminosity with area, total unsigned flux, total vertical electric current, new vertical current, area-average twist, net-vertical-current twist, age, Differential Emission Measure (DEM), and length of neutral line in magnetic field to determine the source of the variation in luminosity found by Fisher. We found that spatially averaged signed shear angle and magnetic area are highly correlated and may require further investigation.
