Simulation of the observed coronal kink instability and its implications for the SDO/AIA

Abstract

Srivastava et al. (2010) have observed a highly twisted coronal loop, which was anchored in AR10960 during the period 04:43 UT- 04:52 UT on 4 June 2007. The loop length and radius are approximately 80 Mm and 4 Mm, with a twist of 11.5 π. These observations are used as initial conditions in a three dimensional nonlinear magnetohydrodynamic simulation with parallel thermal conduction included. The initial unstable equilibrium evolves into the kink instability, from which synthetic observables are generated for various high-tem- perature filters of SDO/AIA. These observables include temporal and spatial averaging to account for the resolution and exposure times of SDO/AIA images. Using the simulation results, we describe the implications of coronal kink instability as observables in SDO/AIA filters.