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Paper: Investigation of a Color-Color Method to Determine Solar Atmospheric Temperatures along Plasma Loops
Volume: 354, Solar MHD Theory and Observations: A High Spatial Resolution Perspective
Page: 339
Authors: Noglik, J.B.; Walsh, R.W.; Ireland, J.
Abstract: Recent interest in establishing the heating mechanism in solar coronal loops has centered on determining the fundamental plasma properties within the loops, e.g. T(s), and ρ(s). This approach has so far proved to be difficult. Aschwanden et al. (2000) used single filter ratio techniques and found evidence for heating weighted towards the loop base. Priest et al. (2000) used Yohkoh observations and a corresponding heating form and found that the heat was most likely uniformly distributed, whilst Reale (2002) found cases of apex dominated heating. This paper examines a new method proposed by Chae et al. (2002), which takes two filter ratios (TRACE 195/171 Å and 284/195 Å). When plotted against each other, the two ratios provide a color-color curve for determining a wide range of unambiguous plasma temperatures. We used this method on SOHO-EIT data of a flare loop on the north east solar limb in order to obtain the temperature profile along the structure. In doing so, we find Chae's method to be troublesome with many data-points sitting off the colorcolor curve. We discuss how this may be due to a multi-thermal atmosphere with more than one loop along the observational line of sight.
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