Evidence for Nanoflare Heating of the Solar Corona from the EUNIS Sounding Rocket

We present spatially resolved EUV spectroscopic measurements ofpervasive, faint Fe XIX 592.2 A line emission in AR 11726,observed during the 2013 April 23 flight of the Extreme UltravioletNormal Incidence Spectrograph (EUNIS-13) sounding rocket instrument. With cooled detectors, high sensitivity, and high spectralresolution, EUNIS-13 resolves the lines of Fe XIX at 592.2 A (formedat temperature T around 8.9 MK) and Fe XII at 592.6 A (T around 1.6MK). The Fe XIX line emission, observed over an area in excess of4920 square arcsec (2.58x10^9 square km, more than 60% of the activeregion), provides strong evidence for the nanoflare heating model ofthe solar corona. No GOES events occurred in the region less than 2hours before the rocket flight, but a microflare was observed northand east of the region with RHESSI and EUNIS during the flight. Theabsence of significant upward velocities anywhere in the region,particularly the microflare, indicates that the pervasive Fe XIXemission is not propelled outward from the microflare site, but ismost likely attributed to localized heating (due to reconnection,wave dissipation, or some other mechanism) consistent with thenanoflare heating model of the solar corona. We measure average FeXIX/Fe XII intensity ratios of 0.070 outside the AR core, 0.22 inarea of bright coronal emission (the area in which the Fe XIIintensity exceeds half its maximum observed value), and 0.55 in theregion's hot core. Using the CHIANTI atomic physics database andassuming ionization equilibrium, we estimate corresponding Fe XIX/FeXII emission measure ratios of about 0.076, 0.23 and 0.59. Theemission measure ratios must be viewed with caution in light oflingering uncertainties in the Fe XII contribution functions.EUNIS-13 was supported by the NASA Heliophysics Division through itsLow Cost Access to Space program.