CORONAL HEATING BY THE INTERACTION BETWEEN EMERGING ACTIVE REGIONS AND THE QUIET SUN OBSERVED BY THE SOLAR DYNAMICS OBSERVATORY

Abstract

The question of what heats the solar corona remains one of the most important puzzles in solar physics and astrophysics. Here we report Solar Dynamics Observatory Atmospheric Imaging Assembly observations of coronal heating by the interaction between emerging active regions (EARs) and the surrounding quiet Sun (QS). The EARs continuously interact with the surrounding QS, resulting in dark ribbons which appear at the boundary of the EARs and the QS. The dark ribbons visible in extreme-ultraviolet wavelengths propagate away from the EARs with speeds of a few km s{sup −1}. The regions swept by the dark ribbons are brightening afterward, with the mean temperature increasing by one quarter. The observational findings demonstrate that uninterrupted magnetic reconnection between EARs and the QS occurs. When the EARs develop, the reconnection continues. The dark ribbons may be the track of the interface between the reconnected magnetic fields and the undisturbed QS’s fields. The propagating speed of the dark ribbons reflects the reconnection rate and is consistent with our numerical simulation. A long-term coronal heating which occurs in turn from nearby the EARs to far away from the EARs is proposed.