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Register a new userFlare Ribbon Energetics in the Early Phase of an SDO Flare
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The sites of chromospheric excitation during solar flares are marked by extended extreme ultraviolet ribbons and hard X-ray footpoints. The standard interpretation is that these are the result of heating and bremsstrahlung emission from non-thermal electrons precipitating from the corona. We examine this picture using multi-wavelength observations of the early phase of an M-class flare SOL2010-08-07T18:24. We aim to determine the properties of the heated plasma in the flare ribbons, and to understand the partition of the power input into radiative and conductive losses. Using GOES, SDO/EVE, SDO/AIA and RHESSI we measure the temperature, emission measure and differential emission measure of the flare ribbons, and deduce approximate density values. The non-thermal emission measure, and the collisional thick target energy input to the ribbons are obtained from RHESSI using standard methods. We deduce the existence of a substantial amount of plasma at 10 MK in the flare ribbons, during the pre-impulsive and early-impulsive phase of the flare. The average column emission measure of this hot component is a few times 10^28/cm^5, and we can calculate that its predicted conductive losses dominate its measured radiative losses. If the power input to the hot ribbon plasma is due to collisional energy deposition by an electron beam from the corona then a low-energy cutoff of around 5 keV is necessary to balance the conductive losses, implying a very large electron energy content. Independent of the standard collisional thick-target electron beam interpretation, the observed non-thermal X-rays can be provided if one electron in 10^3 - 10^4 in the 10 MK (1 keV) ribbon plasma has an energy above 10 keV. We speculate that this could arise if a non-thermal tail is generated in the ribbon plasma which is being heated by other means, for example by waves or turbulence.
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We study a complex GOES M1.1 circular ribbon flare and related pre-flare activity on 26 January 2015 [SOL26-01-2015] in solar active region NOAA 12268. This flare activity was observed by the AIA on board SDO and the RHESSI. The examination of photospheric magnetograms during the extended period, prior to the event, suggests the successive development of a so-called anemone type magnetic configuration. NLFFF extrapolation reveals a fan-spine magnetic configuration with the presence of a coronal null-point. We found that the pre-flare activity in the active region starts ~15 min prior to the main flare in the form of localized bright patches at two locations. A comparison of locations and spatial structures of the pre-flare activity with magnetic configuration of the corresponding region suggests onset of magnetic reconnection at the null-point along with the low-atmosphere magnetic reconnection caused by the emergence and the cancellation of the magnetic flux. The main flare of M1.1 class is characterized by the formation of a well-developed circular ribbon along with a region of remote brightening. Remarkably, a set of relatively compact parallel ribbons formed inside the periphery of the circular ribbon which developed lateral to the brightest part of the circular ribbon. During the peak phase of the flare, a coronal jet is observed at the north-east edge of the circular ribbon which suggests interchange reconnection between large-scale field lines and low-lying closed field lines. Our investigation suggests a combination of two distinct processes in which ongoing pre-flare null-point reconnection gets further intensified as the confined eruption along with jet activity proceeded from within the circular ribbon region which results to the formation of inner parallel ribbons and corresponding post-reconnection arcade.
The presence of current sheet instabilities, such as the tearing mode instability, are needed to account for the observed rate of energy release in solar flares. Insights into these current sheet dynamics can be revealed by the behaviour of flare ribbon substructure, as magnetic reconnection accelerates particles down newly reconnected field lines into the chromosphere to mark the flare footpoints. Behaviour in the ribbons can therefore be used to probe processes occurring in the current sheet. In this study, we use high-cadence (1.7 s) IRIS Slit Jaw Imager observations to probe for the growth and evolution of key spatial scales along the flare ribbons - resulting from dynamics across the current sheet of a small solar flare on December 6th 2016. Combining analysis of spatial scale growth with Si IV non-thermal velocities, we piece together a timeline of flare onset for this confined event, and provide evidence of the tearing-mode instability triggering a cascade and inverse cascade towards a power spectrum consistent with plasma turbulence.
We studied a circular-ribbon flare, SOL2014-12-17T04:51, with emphasis on its thermal evolution as determined by the Differential Emission Measure (DEM) inversion analysis of the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) images of the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Both temperature and emission measure start to rise much earlier than the flare, along with an eruption and formation of a hot halo over the fan structure. In the main flare phase, another set of ribbons forms inside the circular ribbon, and expands as expected for ribbons at the footpoints of a postflare arcade. An additional heating event further extends the decay phase, which is also characteristic of some eruptive flares. The basic magnetic configuration appears to be a fan-spine topology, rooted in a minority-polarity patch surrounded by majority-polarity flux. We suggest that reconnection at the null point begins well before the impulsive phase, when the null is distorted into a breakout current sheet, and that both flare and breakout reconnection are necessary in order to explain the subsequent local thermal evolution and the eruptive activities in this confined magnetic structure. Using local DEMs, we found a postflare temperature increase inside the fan surface, indicating that the so-called EUV late phase is due to continued heating in the flare loops.
We report evolution of an atypical X-shaped flare ribbon which provides novel observational evidence of three-dimensional (3D) magnetic reconnection at a separator. The flare occurred on 2014 November 9. High-resolution slit-jaw 1330 A images from the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph reveal four chromospheric flare ribbons that converge and form an X-shape. Flare brightening in the upper chromosphere spreads along the ribbons toward the center of the X (the X-point), and then spreads outward in a direction more perpendicular to the ribbons. These four ribbons are located in a quadrupolar magnetic field. Reconstruction of magnetic topology in the active region suggests the presence of a separator connecting to the X-point outlined by the ribbons. The inward motion of flare ribbons in the early stage therefore indicates 3D magnetic reconnection between two sets of non-coplanar loops that approach laterally, and reconnection proceeds downward along a section of vertical current sheet. Coronal loops are also observed by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory confirming the reconnection morphology illustrated by ribbon evolution.
We present new results from the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph showing the dynamic evolution of chromospheric evaporation and condensation in a flare ribbon, with the highest temporal and spatial resolution to date. IRIS observed the entire impulsive phase of the X-class flare SOL2014-09-10T17:45 using a 9.4 second cadence `sit-and-stare mode. As the ribbon brightened successively at new positions along the slit, a unique impulsive phase evolution was observed for many tens of individual pixels in both coronal and chromospheric lines. Each activation of a new footpoint displays the same initial coronal up-flows of up to ~300 km/s, and chromospheric downflows up to 40 km/s. Although the coronal flows can be delayed by over 1 minute with respect to those in the chromosphere, the temporal evolution of flows is strikingly similar between all pixels, and consistent with predictions from hydrodynamic flare models. Given the large sample of independent footpoints, we conclude that each flaring pixel can be considered a prototypical, `elementary flare kernel.
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