Energetics of Hi-C EUV brightenings

Abstract

We study the thermal structure and energetics of the point-like extreme ultraviolet (EUV) brightenings within a system of fan loops observed in the active region AR 11520. These brightenings were simultaneously observed on 2012 July 11 by the High-resolution Coronal (Hi-C) imager and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). We identified 27 brightenings by automatically determining intensity enhancements in both Hi-C and AIA 193 Å light curves. The energetics of these brightenings were studied using the Differential Emission Measure (DEM) diagnostics. The DEM weighted temperatures of these transients are in the range log T(K) = 6.2−6.6 with radiative energies ≈1024−25 ergs and densities approximately equal to a few times 109 cm−3. To the best of our knowledge, these are the smallest brightenings in EUV ever detected. We used these results to determine the mechanism of energy loss in these brightenings. Our analysis reveals that the dominant mechanism of energy loss for all the identified brightenings is conduction rather than radiation.