Statistical study of EUV and X-ray transient brightenings

Using the visual inspection and base difference method and data from the X-ray Telescope (XRT) onboard Hinode and TRACE with improved spatial and temporal resolution, we selected 48 X-ray transient brightenings (XTBs) and 237 EUV transient brightenings (ETBs) to study the connection between these two types of transient brightenings (TBs). These ETBs and XTBs have smaller areas (8.42 Mm2 and 36.3 Mm2, respectively, on average) and shorter durations (9.0 min and 6.9 min, respectively, on average) than previous studies. These XTBs show three types of morphological structure: point-like, single-loop and multiple-loop. We find only 20% of the ETBs have corresponding XTBs while the other 80% have no X-ray signatures at all. This is presumably due to the small amount of released energy, which is not enough to heat the plasma to coronal temperatures which produce X-ray emission rather than being due to the limitation of spatial resolution and temperature sensitivity of the X-ray instrument. These small ETBs may significantly contribute to the coronal heating.