DECONSTRUCTING ACTIVE REGION AR10961 USING STEREO, HINODE, TRACE, AND SOHO

Active region 10961 was observed over a five-day period (2007 July 2-6) by instrumentation on-board STEREO, Hinode, TRACE, and SOHO. As it progressed from Sun's center to the solar limb, a comprehensive analysis of the extreme ultraviolet, X-ray, and magnetic field data reveals clearly observable changes in the global nature of the region. Temperature analyses undertaken using STEREO Extreme Ultraviolet Imager double filter ratios and X-ray imaging telescope single and combined filter ratios demonstrate an overall cooling of the region from between 1.6-3.0 MK to 1.0-2.0 MK over the five days. Similarly, Hinode Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph density measurements show a corresponding increase in density of 27%. Moss, cool (1 MK) outer loop areas, and hotter core loop regions were examined and compared with potential magnetic field extrapolations from SOHO Michelson Doppler Imager magnetogram data. In particular, it was found that the potential field model was able to predict the structure of the hotter X-ray loops and that the larger cool loops seen in 171 angstrom images appeared to follow the separatrix surfaces. The reasons behind the high-density moss regions only observed on one side of the active region are examined further.