AR dection map overlaid on an EIT/SoHO image (SoHO is a joint NASA/ESA mission)

In the paper The automated analysis of solar active regions by Verwichte (2003), the developments towards the automated identification of solar active regions and the characterisation of their coronal emission are presented. Central to this effort is the image data archive of the Extreme-ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT), whose increasing size favours the application of automated analysis schemes. The image complexity requires additional information. This paper focuses on the developments of an automated detection scheme for active regions using magnetogram observations, which serves as a stepping stone for the detection of associated emission in EUV images. The ultimate goal of this work is to classify active regions on the basis of their coronal emission and to characterise their main constituents, i.e. coronal loops.