High resolution soft X-ray spectroscopy and the quest for the hot (5–10 MK) plasma in solar active regions
Abstract
We discuss the diagnostics available to study the 5–10 MK plasma in the solar corona, which is key to understanding the heating in the cores of solar active regions. We present several simulated spectra, and show that excellent diagnostics are available in the soft X-rays, around 100 Å, as six ionization stages of Fe can simultaneously be observed, and electron densities derived, within a narrow spectral region. As this spectral range is almost unexplored, we present an analysis of available and simulated spectra, to compare the hot emission with the cooler component. We adopt recently designed multilayers to present estimates of count rates in the hot lines, with a baseline spectrometer design. Excellent count rates are found, opening up the exciting opportunity to obtain high-resolution spectroscopy of hot plasma.
Citation
Del Zanna , G , Andretta , V , Cargill , P J , Corso , A J , Daw , A N , Golub , L , Klimchuk , J A & Mason , H E 2021 , ' High resolution soft X-ray spectroscopy and the quest for the hot (5–10 MK) plasma in solar active regions ' , Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences , vol. 8 , 638489 . https://doi.org/10.3389/fspas.2021.638489
Publication
Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2296-987XType
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2021 Del Zanna, Andretta, Cargill, Corso, Daw, Golub, Klimchuk and Mason. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Description
Funding: GD and HM acknowledge support from STFC (UK) via the consolidated grants to the atomic astrophysics group (AAG) at DAMTP, University of Cambridge (ST/P000665/1 and ST/T000481/1). The work of JK was supported by the GSFC Internal Scientist Funding Model (competitive work package) program. AD acknowledges support through NASA Heliophysics awards 13-HTIDS13 2-0074 and 16-HTIDS16_2-0064.Collections
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