Determining Heating Timescales in Solar Active Region Cores from AIA/SDO Fe XVIII Images

Abstract

We present a study of the frequency of transient brightenings in the core of solar active regions as observed in the Fe XVIII line component of AIA/SDO 94 Å filter images. The Fe XVIII emission is isolated using an empirical correction to remove the contribution of "warm" emission to this channel. Comparing with simultaneous observations from EIS/Hinode, we find that the variability observed in Fe XVIII is strongly correlated with the emission from lines formed at similar temperatures. We examine the evolution of loops in the cores of active regions at various stages of evolution. Using a newly developed event detection algorithm, we characterize the distribution of event frequency, duration, and magnitude in these active regions. These distributions are similar for regions of similar age and show a consistent pattern as the regions age. This suggests that these characteristics are important constraints for models of solar active regions. We find that the typical frequency of the intensity fluctuations is about 1400 s for any given line of sight, i.e., about two to three events per hour. Using the EBTEL 0D hydrodynamic model, however, we show that this only sets a lower limit on the heating frequency along that line of sight.