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Register a new userThe Confined X-class Flares of Solar Active Region 2192
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The unusually large NOAA active region 2192, observed in October 2014, was outstanding in its productivity of major two-ribbon flares without coronal mass ejections. On a large scale, a predominantly north-south oriented magnetic system of arcade fields served as a strong, also lateral, confinement for a series of large two-ribbon flares originating from the core of the active region. The large initial separation of the flare ribbons, together with an almost absent growth in ribbon separation, suggests a confined reconnection site high up in the corona. Based on a detailed analysis of the confined X1.6 flare on October 22, we show how exceptional the flaring of this active region was. We provide evidence for repeated energy release, indicating that the same magnetic field structures were repeatedly involved in magnetic reconnection. We find that a large number of electrons was accelerated to non-thermal energies, revealing a steep power law spectrum, but that only a small fraction was accelerated to high energies. The total non-thermal energy in electrons derived (on the order of 10^25 J) is considerably higher than that in eruptive flares of class X1, and corresponds to about 10% of the excess magnetic energy present in the active-region corona.
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During late October 2014, active region NOAA 2192 caused an unusual high level of solar activity, within an otherwise weak solar cycle. While crossing the solar disk, during a period of 11 days, it was the source of 114 flares of GOES class C1.0 and larger, including 29 M- and 6 X-flares. Surprisingly, none of the major flares (GOES class M5.0 and larger) was accompanied by a coronal mass ejection, contrary to statistical tendencies found in the past. From modeling the coronal magnetic field of NOAA 2192 and its surrounding, we suspect that the cause of the confined character of the flares is the strong surrounding and overlying large-scale magnetic field. Furthermore, we find evidence for multiple magnetic reconnection processes within a single flare, during which electrons were accelerated to unusual high energies.
Solar flares are often associated with coronal eruptions, but there are confined ones without eruption, even for some X-class flares. How such large flares occurred and why they are confined are still not well understood. Here we studied a confined X2.2 flare in NOAA 12673 on 2017 September 6. It exhibits two episodes of flare brightening with rather complex, atypical ribbons. Based on topology analysis of extrapolated coronal magnetic field, we revealed that there is a two-step magnetic reconnection process during the flare. Prior to the flare, there is a magnetic flux rope (MFR) with one leg rooted in a rotating sunspot. Neighboring to the leg is a magnetic null-point structure. The sunspot drives the MFR to expand, pushing magnetic flux to the null point, and reconnection is first triggered there. The disturbance from the null-point reconnection triggers the second reconnection, i.e., a tether-cutting reconnection below the rope. However, these two reconnections failed to produce an eruption, because the rope is firmly held by its strapping flux. Furthermore, we compared this flare with an eruptive X9.3 flare in the same region with 2 hours later, which has a similar MFR configuration. The key difference between them is that, for the confined flare, the MFR is fully below the threshold of torus instability, while for the eruptive one, the MFR reaches entirely above the threshold. This study provides a good evidence supporting that reconnection alone may not be able to trigger eruption, rather, MHD instability plays a more important role.
Solar flares are sudden and violent releases of magnetic energy in the solar atmosphere that can be divided in eruptive flares, when plasma is ejected from the solar atmosphere, resulting in a coronal mass ejection (CME), and confined flares when no CME is associated with the flare. We present a case-study showing the evolution of key topological structures, such as spines and fans which may determine the eruptive versus non-eruptive behavior of the series of eruptive flares, followed by confined flares, which are all originating from the same site. To study the connectivity of the different flux domains and their evolution, we compute a potential magnetic field model of the active region. Quasi-separatrix layers are retrieved from the magnetic field extrapolation. The change of behavior of the flares from one day to the next -eruptive to confined- can be attributed to the change of orientation of the magnetic field below the fan with respect to the orientation of the overlaying spine, rather than an overall change in the stability of the large scale field. Flares tend to be more-and-more confined when the field that supports the filament and the overlying field gradually become less-and-less anti-parallel, as a direct result of changes in the photospheric flux distribution, being themselves driven by continuous shearing motions of the different magnetic flux concentrations.
We compare the coronal magnetic energy and helicity of two solar active regions (ARs), prolific in major eruptive (AR~11158) and confined (AR~12192) flaring, and analyze the potential of deduced proxies to forecast upcoming flares. Based on nonlinear force-free (NLFF) coronal magnetic field models with a high degree of solenoidality, and applying three different computational methods to investigate the coronal magnetic helicity, we are able to draw conclusions with a high level of confidence. Based on real observations of two solar ARs we checked trends regarding the potential eruptivity of the active-region corona, as suggested earlier in works that were based on numerical simulations, or solar observations. Our results support that the ratio of current-carrying to total helicity, $|H_mathrm{J}|/|H_mathrm{V}|$, shows a strong ability to indicate the eruptive potential of a solar AR. However, $|H_mathrm{J}|/|H_mathrm{V}|$ seems not to be indicative for the magnitude or type of an upcoming flare (confined or eruptive). Interpreted in context with earlier observational studies, our findings furthermore support that the total relative helicity normalized to the magnetic flux at the NLFF models lower boundary, $H_mathrm{V}/phi^2$, represents no indicator for the eruptivity.
Solar Active Region NOAA 11158 has hosted a number of strong flares, including one X2.2 event. The complexity of current density and current helicity are studied through cancellation analysis of their sign-singular measure, which features power-law scaling. Spectral analysis is also performed, revealing the presence of two separate scaling ranges with different spectral index. The time evolution of parameters is discussed. Sudden changes of the cancellation exponents at the time of large flares, and the presence of correlation with EUV and X-ray flux, suggest that eruption of large flares can be linked to the small scale properties of the current structures.
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