The relationship between magnetic field strength and loop lengths in solar coronal active regions

¹ Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Sheffield, S3 7RH, UK e-mail: R.Jain@sheffield.ac.uk
² Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio, CONICET-UBA, CC. 67 Suc. 28, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina e-mail: mandrini@iafe.uba.ar

Received: 13 June 2005
Accepted: 19 December 2005

Abstract

By assuming that coronal active regions are made up of many loops, we investigate the relationship between the average magnetic field strength and loop length for a sample of active regions observed by the Soft X-ray Telescope aboard Yohkoh. We use photospheric magnetic data from the Michelson Doppler Imager and compute extrapolated field lines that match the observed soft X-ray emission. We compare our results with a previous study and find them to be consistent and a logical extension of such work. Such studies have important implications for solar coronal heating models.