2026ApJ...997..245C

Active galactic nucleus (AGN)-driven outflows are routinely invoked as a key agent of supermassive black holes to regulate the evolution of galaxies. The radial distance from the central engine is a crucial parameter for evaluating the impact of these outflows on the host galaxy. In this work, we estimate the radial distances of UV outflow components in NGC 5548 using the most up-to-date absorption line variability method, combined with multi-epoch Hubble Space Telescope (HST)/Cosmic Origins Spectrograph spectroscopy from the 2014 AGN STORM campaign and archival data observed in 2013. The recombination timescale (t_r) of the absorbers is measured by analyzing the detection rate curves of absorption line variability. In particular, the detection rate curves of the absorption troughs showing blended multiple velocity components are featured by distinct “multistep” profiles, allowing for measuring t_r for individual components. Among the six identified outflow components, four are found to be a few parsecs from the center, and two are 30-40 pc away. Our results agree well with the more reliable results in the literature on components 1 and 4, and show overall consistency with previous works, demonstrating the power of our new methodology, especially when it is aided by densely sampled HST spectra.