Critical Issues of Nanoflare Statistics
Abstract
The accuracy of solar microflare and nanoflare statistics became a critical issue because the extrapolation of their power-law distribution at the lower flux or energy threshold is often used as estimate of their total energy budget to meet the coronal heating requirement. We review and quantify a number of aspects that play a role in the determination of their frequency distribution: (1) event definition and discrimination, (2) sampling completeness, (3) observing cadence and exposure times, (4) pattern recognition algorithms, (5) density and energy model, (6) line-of-sight integration, (7) physical parameter limits, (8) wavelength dependence, (9) deviations from power-law functions, and (10) error estimates of power-law slopes. We discuss critical issues in the concept of event definitions, which includes flares, subflare bursts, radio bursts, coherent as well as intermittent temporal fine structure. Finally we review critical issues in physical concepts of nanoflares, which range from Parker's coronal tangential discontinuities down to miniature flare loops observed in EUV in the transition region. We conclude that power-law slopes from different data analyses cannot be properly compared without taking into account the involved measurement biases and theoretical model concepts.
- Publication:
-
AGU Spring Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- May 2001
- Bibcode:
- 2001AGUSM..SP52B08A
- Keywords:
-
- 7507 Chromosphere;
- 7509 Corona;
- 7546 Transition region;
- 7549 Ultraviolet emissions