A&A 381, 1049-1058 (2002)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20011563
C. R. Foley1 - S. Patsourakos1 - J. L. Culhane1 - D. MacKay2
1 - Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London,
Holmbury St Mary, Dorking, Surrey RH5 6NT, UK
2 -
Department of Mathematical and Physical Sciences,
St Andrews University, Scotland, UK
Received 30 July 2001 / Accepted 8 November 2001
Abstract
We use the Coronal Diagnostic Spectrometer onboard the Solar and Heliospheric
Observatory (SOHO) to analyze conditions in coronal streamer structures
observed close to solar minimum (1996 July 8) and near maximum (1999 August 5). We measured the intensities of emission lines from Fe IX-XV ions and found
the most intense emission to be from Fe XI at solar minimum and from Fe XV at
solar maximum. We then used the line ratio method with transitions in
selected ions to extract the radial temperature behavior in the
structures. The solar minimum peak values were about 1.4 MK at 1.3 ,
while values derived close to
solar maximum were consistent with the Yohkoh observations at the last
maximum, displaying an apparently asymptotic temperature of around 2.2 MK
above 1.2
.
We discuss the observations in relation to possible
mechanisms for energy deposition in large coronal structures at different
phases of the solar cycle.
Key words: Sun: corona - Sun: activity - Sun: X-rays, gamma rays - stars: coronae
Knowledge of the electron temperature in the corona and its variation with
height in different regions forms an integral part of our understanding of
coronal heating and solar wind acceleration. Recently the coronal temperature has been successfully measured at significant heights above the limb using the
broadband filter ratio technique (Foley et al. 1996; Sturrock et al. 1996; Wheatland et al. 1997; Foley 1998; Priest et al. 1998, 2000). In these papers the radial temperature structure,
,
has been used in an attempt to determine the heating function of the Sun's Corona. This work has generally found that temperature is an increasing function of
height above the limb, and this result has subsequently been used to demonstrate a requirement for
heating up to and including the maximum observed height range of almost 2 solar
radii. Analysis of the broadband data obtained with the Yohkoh Soft X-ray
Telescope, has required an isothermal assumption which may not
be realized in practice. Using this method, positive temperature gradients have been consistently
reported for the quiescent regions, overlying neutral lines located in the
high latitude regions.
The SOHO Coronal Diagnostic Spectrometer (CDS, Harrison et al. 1995)
allows us to view the relative distribution of individual ions as function of
height. Consequently, we now have the ability to examine the true distribution of
plasma in many regions of the corona. In this work we evaluate the relative abundance
of Fe IX through Fe XV ions for coronal streamers observed close to the solar
minimum and maximum of the current solar cycle (23), on 1996 July 8 and
1999 August 5 respectively. The most abundant (adjacent in )
ions were then used to establish
the best representation of the apparent temperature profile with height.
The derived temperature profile and its variation from solar minimum to
maximum are used to infer how the corona evolves and its associated energy requirements. For comparison we have also included solar maximum data
for cycle 22 (1992, October 3) obtained from Yohkoh observations using the filter ratio method (Tsuneta et al. 1991).
In the following section we describe the instrumentation. In Sect. 3, we discuss the principles behind our analysis method. Section 4 treats the observations which we obtained for solar maximum and minimum. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for coronal structure and heating through the solar cycle in Sect. 5, and concluding remarks in Sect. 6.
The Coronal Diagnostic Spectrometer (CDS) on SOHO consists of two complementary spectrometers which make use of a common grazing incidence telescope: a Grazing Incidence Spectrometer (GIS); and a Normal Incidence Spectrometer (NIS). Together, GIS and NIS cover most of the wavelength range from 150 Å to 785 Å (Harrison et al. 1995). The GIS system has four detectors, with spectral ranges 151-221 Å, 256-341 Å, 393-492 Å and 656-785 Å, while the NIS covers two ranges: 308-381 Å and 513-633 Å.
The NIS uses for its detector an intensified CCD camera. This makes use of a micro-channel plate with a phosphor converter which intensifies and converts the incident EUV to visible light. This is then focussed by a lens onto a CCD.
The GIS detectors (Breeveld et al. 1992) are open-faced microchannel plate (MCP) detectors in a Z stack configuration with the output charge of the MCP directed on to a charge division read-out. The detectors operate in photon counting mode, and this allows events to be discriminated by pulse height, thereby allowing cosmic ray hits to be excluded from the accumulated spectra. The GIS is therefore able to obtain deep exposures relatively free of cosmic ray background.
The Yohkoh Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT, Tsuneta et al. 1991) provides full-Sun images in the range 4-60 Å. Use of pairs of filters allows the estimation of electron temperature assuming that the plasma sampled is isothermal.
Coronagraphic images of the streamers that were observed were obtained with the SOHO Large Angle Solar Coronagraph (LASCO, Brueckner et al. 1995) and with the ground-based instrument on Mauna Loa (Fisher et al. 1981).
In this work we use the intensities of individual emission lines in the
EUV regime to determine the properties of the Sun's corona to over one
solar radius above the solar limb. Assuming optically thin radiation the
intensity of an emission line which we observe can be represented by
(Mason & Fossi 1994)
As mentioned in the introduction, observations of the temperature profile in
the corona have been obtained with the Yohkoh SXT near the maximum of cycle 22
(1992, October 3). These observations use the ratio of the signal recorded in
two broadband filter images to determine the weighted isothermal temperature
of the observed region. By taking the calculated intensity ratios
using emission lines from the same element (e.g. Fe, see Fig. 1),
![]() |
Figure 1:
a) Line ratios and Yohkoh SXT filter ratio used for the diagnostics
in this paper. b) The contribution functions
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Our derivation of electron temperatures will be made with the assumption
of ionization-equilibrium. However, since mass flows take place in streamers,
these may induce some departures from the ionization-equilibrium due to slow
solar wind flow. Therefore the transit times
associated
with mass flows should be considered as they may induce some departures from the ionization-equilibrium
(e.g., Dupree et al. 1979). The
ionization time
is a function of both the electron
temperature and density. We have used here the analytic fits given in Shull
& Van Steenberg (1982). The transit times
associated with
mass flows may be defined as:
![]() |
(2) |
The slow solar wind radial velocity
was determined by assuming
mass flux conservation between the inner corona and 1 AU. We
used the standard form of the cross-sectional area of a flux tube given by
Kopp & Holtzer (1976) and adapted it for slow speed wind emanating from
streamers by using the parameters given in Withbroe (1988). We used the
value of
measured
in-situ by Ulysses in the ecliptic plane (Goldstein et al. 1996).
For the
radial profile, we used the corresponding relation for streamers
given by Guhathakurta et al. (1996). We finally assumed a fully-ionized
plasma with 10
helium which results in
.
We found a
slow solar wind velocity that does not exceed 20 kms-1 at 2
.
The results for the calculated
and
for
the distance range 1-2
and for four different values of
the temperature, which was assumed to be constant in the above region,
are shown in Fig. 2.
![]() |
Figure 2: Transit (in thick lines) and ionization times (in dashes-dots) as a function of the solar distance for Fe IX to Fe XVI. The ionization times were calculated by assuming a constant temperature which is indicated in each panel. Ionization times for Fe IX to Fe XVI run from the bottom to the top in the figure. |
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During the middle part of 1996 the solar cycle reached its minimum phase of
activity. The corona was dominated by two large polar coronal holes, with a
relatively simple large-scale coronal streamer extending between them.
We constructed a synoptic map using LASCO C2 data at a height of 2.2
which we present in Fig. 3.
![]() |
Figure 3:
Lasco C2 synoptic map generated by extracting and averaging the
daily signal at a height of 2.2 ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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In Fig. 4 we have illustrated the region as it appeared in
one of these images.
![]() |
Figure 4: Composite image of the Sun that was obtained on 1996 July 8. The central part is an EIT 284 Å image, outside that is a Mauna Loa coronagraph image, and the outermost region a LASCO C2 image. |
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The observational sequence which we used to study the region is summarized
in Table 1.
Coordinates | Height | Exposure | Raster | |
Positions (spacing) | ||||
(
![]() |
(s) | (solar-x) | (solar-y) | |
-1120, 0 | 1.17 | 20 | 30 (8
![]() |
3 (100
![]() |
-1360, 0 | 1.42 | 40 | 30 (8
![]() |
3 (100
![]() |
-1600, 0 | 1.67 | 80 | 30 (8
![]() |
3 (100
![]() |
-1840, 0 | 1.92 | 160 | 30 (8
![]() |
3 (100
![]() |
-2080, 0 | 2.17 | 160 | 30 (8
![]() |
3 (100
![]() |
We have summed data from each of the five rasters to produce an average count rate for each radial position. We fitted selected regions using the cfit routine which is distributed as part of the Solarsoft package. This allows a structure to be defined which contains the lines and the allowed range of parameters of the fit, such as width, position and intensity. The results of these fits for each of the raster positions are presented in Table 2.
Emission | Laboratory | Intensity | ||||
Line | wavelength |
![]() |
||||
(Å) | 1.05-1.3 ![]() |
1.3-1.55
![]() |
1.55-1.8 ![]() |
1.8-2.05 ![]() |
2.05-2.3 ![]() |
|
Fe IX | 171.07 | 2107 | 38.7 | 15.5 | 9.34 | 6.77 |
Fe X | 184.54 | 624 | 8.97 | 2.90 | 1.35 | 0.91 |
Fe X/XII | 190.04 | 296 | 5.08 | 1.59 | 0.80 | 0.57 |
Fe XI | 188.22 | 2289 | 58.8 | 16.6 | 7.78 | 5.25 |
Fe XII | 186.88 | 264 | 5.39 | 1.91 | 1.08 | 0.71 |
Fe XIII | 202.04 | 1125 | 65.7 | 16.3 | 8.00 | 3.94 |
Fe XIII | 203.79 | 182 | 4.34 | 0.87 | 0.65 | 0.28 |
Fe XIV | 334.17 | 140 | 16.8 | 3.84 | 2.25 | 1.19 |
Fe XV | 284.16 | 470 | 61.0 | 14.9 | 8.75 | 3.46 |
In order to understand the distribution of plasma we have plotted the loci of the emission
measure (see e.g. Griffiths & Jordan 1998) for each ion from Table 2 as a function of temperature in Fig. 5.
![]() |
Figure 5:
Emission measure loci of each Fe ion from Table 2 for
![]() ![]() |
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To investigate the variation of temperature as a function of height we have used the line intensity ratio which is most sensitive to temperature changes for the bulk of the plasma in this temperature regime namely I(Fe IX)/I(Fe XI). We present the results of this analysis in Sect. 4.3 along with similar calculations for the solar maximum.
Solar maximum of the current solar cycle was characterized by
the appearance of bright coronal streamers located close to the poles.
These structures appear to have evolved from the decaying magnetic field
from the first high latitude spots of the cycle. During 1999 August 5,
we performed observations of such a compact streamer.
In Fig. 6 we show a composite view using
an enhanced SXT image and a MK4 coronagraph image which was obtained from
the Mauna Loa solar observatory.
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Figure 6:
Composite view of the corona formed from an enhanced
composite Yohkoh SXT image (central region) and a Mauna Loa MK4
coronagraph image (outer region) on 1999 August 5. The streamer which we observed
is indicated by the arrow was centered at a Carrington longitude of
80![]() |
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To study this region we constructed an observing sequence which rastered over the whole streamer and included data from both the NIS and GIS. The observational sequence used for each detector is summarized in Table 3.
Coordinates | Height | Exposure | Raster | |
positions (spacing) | ||||
(![]() |
(s) | solar-x | solar-y | |
-920, -1170 | 1.55 | 50 | 30 (32
![]() |
4 (61
![]() |
-920, -1020 | 1.43 | 20 | 30 (8
![]() |
5 (51
![]() |
-920, -780 | 1.26 | 10 | 30 (8
![]() |
5 (51
![]() |
-680, -1383 | 1.60 | 50 | 8 (32
![]() |
4 (61
![]() |
-680, -1215 | 1.45 | 20 | 30 (8
![]() |
5 (51
![]() |
-680, -975 | 1.24 | 10 | 30 (8
![]() |
5 (51
![]() |
-440, -1535 | 1.66 | 50 | 8 (32
![]() |
4 (61
![]() |
-440, -1335 | 1.46 | 20 | 30 (8
![]() |
5 (51
![]() |
-440, -1095 | 1.23 | 10 | 30 (8
![]() |
5 (51
![]() |
-200, 1375 | 1.45 | 20 | 30 (8
![]() |
5 (51
![]() |
-200, -1135 | 1.20 | 10 | 30 (8
![]() |
5 (51
![]() |
-680, -975 | 1.24 | 50 | 30 (8
![]() |
18 (13
![]() |
-680, -735 | 1.04 | 50 | 30 (8
![]() |
18 (13
![]() |
-440, -1095 | 1.23 | 50 | 30 (8
![]() |
18 (13
![]() |
-440, -855 | 1.00 | 50 | 30 (8
![]() |
18 (13
![]() |
The NIS as mentioned earlier, covers a complementary wavelength range and
has the ability to image a region. We coarsely sampled the region (as
indicated in the bottom section of Table 3) with slit 5 (
)
along which we summed every 8 pixels, to produce a macropixel. We
did this to reduce the required telemetry transmission bandwidth and thus
allow the complete spectra of NIS 1 and NIS 2 to be returned within a
reasonable time and without additional telemetry overheads. The NIS
observations allow us to check the calibration of our lines and to observe
the emission variation all the way to the limb, where the intensity would
normally exceed threshold limits of the GIS detectors.
We corrected the data using the same procedure which we described in the
preceding section. There is no evidence for significant aging of the GIS
detectors over the course of mission, and we have therefore used the preflight flat
field for the GIS. This is not the case for the NIS which requires a flat field to
correct for the Long Term Gain Depression (LTGD). We thus use the NIS to
check the intensities of the lines in the overlap region (1.05-1.20 ), and to confirm the absolute intensity
calibration of similar lines found in both the NIS (Fe XIV 334.17 Å, Fe XV 327.06 Å) and GIS (Fe XIV 211.32 Å, Fe XV 417.75) detectors.
The brightest lines we observed and for which we could obtain fits, are summarized in
Table 4.
Emission | Laboratory | Intensity | |
Line | wavelength |
![]() |
|
(Å) | 1.05-1.3 ![]() |
1.3-1.55
![]() |
|
Fe IX | 171.07 | 674 | 215 |
Fe XI | 188.22 | 919 | 188 |
Fe XII | 186.88 | 166 | 34.3 |
Fe XIII | 202.04 | 3706 | 702 |
Fe XIII | 203.79 | 385 | 52.0 |
Fe XIV | 211.03 | 3541 | 694 |
Fe XV | 417.75 | 2500 | 530 |
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Figure 7:
Emission measure loci for solar maximum data of each Fe ion from
Table 4 for
r=1.05-1.3 ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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The origin of the different plasma components is illustrated in
Fig. 8.
![]() |
Figure 8: Monochromatic images constructed of the observed region. The upper panel corresponds to the NIS observations, and the lower panel corresponds to the GIS observations as summarized in Table 3. In the top left hand panel we have indicated the location of the solar limb. It is interesting to note that the Fe XI emission appears to dominate at the edge of the streamer where the field is expected to be open (arrowed). |
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To investigate the variation of temperature as a function of height
through the core (-60
to -70
latitude) of this solar
maximum streamer we have used the line intensity ratio which is most sensitive to temperature changes
for the bulk of the plasma in this temperature regime namely I(Fe XV)/I(Fe
XIV) and I(Fe XVI)/I(Fe XIV)
for the GIS and NIS respectively. We present the results of this analysis in the following section
along with similar calculations for the solar minimum.
In Fig. 9 we present the temperature estimates that
result from the CDS line fits and line ratios.
![]() |
Figure 9: The radial temperature structure determined for solar maximum (1999 August 5, triangles - NIS; squares - GIS) and solar minimum (1996 July 8, asterisks). The values from Foley (1998) are over plotted as diamonds in the inset panel and were determined through a similar region at the last solar maximum. The similarity between the two maximums is surprising given the degree of systematic uncertainty associated with each plot. The error bars of each point represent the statistical error of the measurements. The standard error is associated with the uncertainty in the relative calibration of each emission line/passband. In the case of CDS the absolute calibration this is approximately 30% for the GIS and equates to approximately 1 MK. We have overplotted a conserved heat flux model from Sturrock et al. (1996), with the fitted values indicated. For solar minimum this includes an outward heat flux from Owocki et al. (1983). |
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The radial temperature structure we derive here agrees well with typical values which were found during the last solar maximum which are summarized in Foley (1998). This suggests that the assumptions which were used in deriving the temperatures from the Yohkoh SXT filter ratio data were valid during the solar maximum. These assumptions were associated with the use of two broadband filters which limit the analysis to a weighted isothermal approximation for each position.
Our other finding of an increase in the coronal temperature from solar minimum to maximum, is broadly consistent with electron density distributions obtained from eclipse observations during solar minimum and maximum periods (e.g., Gabryl et al. 1999). These authors found that when moving from solar minimum to maximum the slope of the electron density radial distribution in streamers flattens. This would imply, by assuming hydrostatic equilibrium, that the electron temperature (assumed equal to the ion temperature) should increase from solar minimum to solar maximum. This is exactly what we observe.
Gibson et al. (1999) reports the densities and temperatures of the same
coronal streamer observed 1.5 Carrington rotations later on 1996 August 17.
This was determined from the density gradients found from the
LASCO C2 and Mauna Loa MK 3 Coronameter data. They found temperatures
which peaked at 1.5 MK and a location 1.3 .
These results are consistent
with those we have found here spectroscopically. This suggests that the cores of
solar minimum quiescent streamers are in hydrostatic equilibrium.
Departure from hydrostatic equilibrium is something which is often cited as a reason why soft X-ray emission gradients cannot be fitted for coronal streamer data. However, it is noted that solar minimum streamers may be considered to be in hydrostatic equilibrium from the work here. It is interesting to note that in Sturrock et al. (1996) that the analysis of a structure which appears to be a leg of a large scale loop was consistent with a hydrostatic barometric atmosphere.
In Fig. 10 we present a potential field extrapolation of the magnetic field
in the region of interest as would be seen when viewed on the limb.
![]() |
Figure 10: Potential field extrapolation of the magnetic field in the region of interest on 1996, July 8. |
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We have over-plotted in Fig. 9 (dashed curve) the temperature profile anticipated if the decline from this height
was that expected for outward conserved conductive loss (see Owocki et al. 1983)
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(3) |
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(4) |
Measurements of the plasma beta value in the cores of streamers have been performed by Li et al. (1998). They found that the plasma pressure was the dominant force in streamer cores. In light of this and our outwardly declining temperature gradient, it would seem probable that we are viewing the initiation of the slow speed wind from the tops of loops. The fact that we observe a temperature increase within the cores of coronal streamers would imply that the heating source for the streamer must lie at or above the location of the temperature maximum e.g. at the tops of the large transequatorial loops that comprise the large scale structure of the streamers.
Raymond et al. (1997), Raymond et al. (1998) and Feldman et al. (1999) report a depletion of high FIP elements at solar minimum within quiescent streamers. They attribute this to a gravitational settling. This is consistent with the view drawn in the previous paragraph, where the principal energy source is from the heating of the loops embedded within streamers. The material which fills coronal streamers may also originate within these loops. This may account for the often reported departure from normal hydrostatic equilibrium for coronal streamer structures (e.g. see Aschwanden & Nitta 2000). Although this may also be directly related to the geometry.
The role of coronal magnetic field in coronal heating is well established with
many different heating mechanisms being distinguished by their scaling with
the field strength (Priest et al. 1998, 2000). In such models the coronal heating
rate is proportional to
,
with
being a function of
the specific mechanism of magnetic energy build-up, release and dissipation.
These mechanisms were recently reviewed by Mandrini et al.
(2000), who compiled the values of
expected
for different magnetic-based heating scenarios.
Our aim here is to calculate an approximate value for
so as to
gain insights on which magnetic heating models may be more relevant.
By assuming that the heating sets up a conductive flux in the corona and by noting from Fig. 9 that the temperature scale heights are more or less identical for solar minimum and maximum,
we can write, to first order, that
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(5) |
In a recent paper Schühle et al. (2000), found by using
SUMER data, an increase in the transition region (TR)
emission of up to a factor of 2 from solar minimum to solar maximum.
This behavior could be related to the observed increase
of the coronal temperature demonstrated in the previous sections.
Transition region models for the quiet Sun (e.g., Gabriel 1976)
indicate that TR radiative losses are powered from the
coronal conductive flux. By noting from Fig. 9 that the
temperature scale heights are more or less identical in solar minimum and maximum,
we can make the approximation that the TR radiative losses
would scale as
where
is the maximum coronal
temperature. Therefore, we have (Withbroe 1988)
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(6) |
We have observed fundamental elements of the quiet solar corona, namely coronal streamers
at solar minimum and solar maximum using the CDS instrument on SOHO. From these observations
we have determined the distribution of Fe IX-XV as a function of height out to 2.3 (1.8
)
at solar minimum (maximum). We find that the solar minimum emission is
dominated by Fe XI while at solar maximum the emission is dominated by Fe
XV. This comes about due to an order of magnitude increase in the emission measure of Fe XV,
while the Fe XI decreases by about half.
We have used the ratio of the most abundant ions to determine the vertical temperature
structure at solar minimum and maximum. We find that the temperature increases as a
function of height to a peak of about 1.4 MK at 1.3
at solar minimum. This
is reduced by around 0.7 MK compared to temperatures determined by both
the SOHO CDS and the Yohkoh SXT at solar maximum 22 (see Foley 1998); and the measurements
which we present here using CDS for the current maximum 23.
The location of the temperature maximum is coincident with the tops of loops which comprised the regions observed. The temperature declines below and above these loops suggesting they are the focus of energy deposition within coronal streamers. The magnetic field extrapolation suggests that, above the temperature maximum, the field may progressively open with the falling temperature suggesting outflow that may be related to the slow solar wind.
We find that the modulation of coronal electron temperature through the decline and rise of a solar cycle is consistent with a scaling with magnetic field of the order of B1.5. This from current theory is consistent with uniform heating by current dissipation and turbulence. We have also shown that this temperature increase could be responsible for the observed solar cycle enhancement of the transition region emission. We plan to investigate these ideas in the future using further observations from the instruments on the SOHO spacecraft.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the UK Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council for financial support. We acknowledge the Solar UK Research Facility (SURF - http://surfwww.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/surf/) for providing data for use in this publication. SOHO is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA. The Yohkoh soft X-ray telescope is a collaborative project of the Lockheed Palo Alto Research Laboratory, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, and the University of Tokyo, supported by NASA and ISAS. The Mauna Loa MK3 and MK4 Coronagraph data was provided courtesy, High Altitude Observatory, National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, Colorado, USA. NCAR is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
We would like to thank Terry Kucera, Ron Yurow, Eddie Breeveld, Dave Pike and Stein Vider Haugan for help coordinating and monitoring some of our observations. We would also like to thank Matt Wyndham, Ben Sanderson, Jon Lappington, Alec McCalden, and Alice Breeveld for helpful discussion regarding the way in which the GIS operates, and making this work possible. This research has made use of NASA's Astrophysics Data System Abstract Service. The CHIANTI database is a collaborative project involving the Naval Research Laboratory (Washington DC, USA), the Arcetri Observatory (Firenze, Italy), and Cambridge University (UK). We would also like to thank the anonymous referee for useful comments which improved the clarity of this paper.