Emission Measure and Temperature Analysis of the Upper Coronal Source of a Solar Flare

Abstract

An X-ray coronal source is usually seen above the reconnection site located above flare loops, while a second source appears in between this site and the loops. The first source is called the upper coronal source, the second the loop-top source. Both sources are thought to be related to the outflows from the magnetic reconnection site above the flare loops. Previous observations have shown that the upper coronal source has both a thermal and nonthermal component. In this article, we explore the spatial appearance of the upper coronal source in a solar flare observed by the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO/AIA) on 8 March 2011. This event occurred at the limb with completely occulted loop footpoints. Both the loop-top and the upper coronal sources are well observed by RHESSI in X-rays. The loop-top source emission covers a wide energy range up to 50 keV, while the upper coronal source emits below 25 keV. The upper coronal source appears later (about two minutes) than the loop-top source, and the RHESSI X-ray spectral analysis shows that both sources have a temperature of 30 MK. This temperature is confirmed by the differential emission measure (DEM) analysis from SDO/AIA data. AIA observations show the counterparts in the ultraviolet (UV), and bidirectional outflows appear between AIA brightenings. The loop-top source seems to be located at the top of a hot and dense loop system, which expands with a speed of $10~\mbox{km}\,\mbox{s}^{-1}$ , while the upper coronal source moves faster upward with a speed of about $32~\mbox{km}\,\mbox{s}^{-1}$ in the same time interval. The analysis of the spatial distribution of the emission measure and temperature indicates that the hot plasma itself or the heating region are possibly moving upward from the lower coronal region where the loop-top source appears. This is the reason that the upper coronal source appears later than the loop-top source.