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Register a new userFermi-LAT Observations of High-energy Behind-the-limb Solar Flares
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Melissa Pesce-Rollins Dr
Publication date
2017
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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We report on the Fermi-LAT detection of high-energy emission from the behind-the-limb (BTL) solar flares that occurred on 2013 October 11, and 2014 January 6 and September 1. The Fermi-LAT observations are associated with flares from active regions originating behind both the eastern and western limbs, as determined by STEREO. All three flares are associated with very fast coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and strong solar energetic particle events. We present updated localizations of the >100 MeV photon emission, hard X-ray (HXR)and EUV images, and broadband spectra from 10 keV to 10 GeV, as well as microwave spectra. We also provide a comparison of the BTL flares detected by Fermi-LAT with three on-disk flares and present a study of some of the significant quantities of these flares as an attempt to better understand the acceleration mechanisms at work during these occulted flares. We interpret the HXR emission to be due to electron bremsstrahlung from a coronal thin-target loop top with the accelerated electron spectra steepening at semirelativistic energies. The >100 MeV gamma-rays are best described by a pion-decay model resulting from the interaction of protons (and other ions) in a thick-target photospheric source. The protons are believed to have been accelerated (to energies >10 GeV) in the CME environment and precipitate down to the photosphere from the downstream side of the CME shock and landed on the front side of the Sun, away from the original flare site and the HXR emission.
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Fermi-LAT >30 MeV observations have increased the number of detected solar flares by almost a factor of 10 with respect to previous space observations. These sample both the impulsive and long duration phases of GOES M and X class flares. Of particular interest is the recent detections of three solar flares whose position behind the limb was confirmed by the STEREO-B spacecraft. While gamma-ray emission up to tens of MeV resulting from proton interactions has been detected before from occulted solar flares, the significance of these particular events lies in the fact that these are the first detections of >100 MeV gamma-ray emission from footpoint-occulted flares. We will present the Fermi-LAT, RHESSI and STEREO observations of these flares and discuss the various emission scenarios for these sources and implications for the particle acceleration mechanisms.
Context. The observation of >100 MeV {gamma}-rays in the minutes to hours following solar flares suggests that high-energy particles interacting in the solar atmosphere can be stored and/or accelerated for long time periods. The occasions when {gamma}-rays are detected even when the solar eruptions occurred beyond the solar limb as viewed from Earth provide favorable viewing conditions for studying the role of coronal shocks driven by coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in the acceleration of these particles. Aims: In this paper, we investigate the spatial and temporal evolution of the coronal shocks inferred from stereoscopic observations of behind-the-limb flares to determine if they could be the source of the particles producing the {gamma}-rays. Methods: We analyzed the CMEs and early formation of coronal shocks associated with {gamma}-ray events measured by the Fermi-Large Area Telescope (LAT) from three eruptions behind the solar limb as viewed from Earth on 2013 Oct. 11, 2014 Jan. 06 and Sep. 01. We used a 3D triangulation technique, based on remote-sensing observations to model the expansion of the CME shocks from above the solar surface to the upper corona. Coupling the expansion model to various models of the coronal magnetic field allowed us to derive the time-dependent distribution of shock Mach numbers and the magnetic connection of particles produced by the shock to the solar surface visible from Earth. Results: The reconstructed shock fronts for the three events became magnetically connected to the visible solar surface after the start of the flare and just before the onset of the >100 MeV {gamma}-ray emission. The shock surface at these connections also exhibited supercritical Mach numbers required for significant particle energization. [...] (Abridged)
The Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) is the most sensitive instrument ever deployed in space for observing gamma-ray emission >100 MeV. This sensitivity has enabled the LAT to detect gamma-ray emission from the Sun during quiescent periods from pions produced by cosmic-ray protons interacting in the solar atmosphere and from cosmic-ray electrons interacting with solar optical photons. The LAT has detected high-energy gamma-ray emission associated with GOES M-class and X-class X-ray flares accompanied by coronal mass ejections and solar energetic particle events. In a number of cases, LAT has detected gamma rays with energies up to several hundreds of MeV during the impulsive phase and gamma rays up to GeV energies sustained for several hours after the impulsive phase. This presentation focuses on observations in the impulsive emission phase in solar flares, including the modest GOES M2-class flare at SOL2010-06-12T0057 and more recent detections, such as the bright X-class flares of March 2012.
We report the first detection of >100 MeV gamma rays associated with a behind-the-limb solar flare, which presents a unique opportunity to probe the underlying physics of high-energy flare emission and particle acceleration. On 2013 October 11 a GOES M1.5 class solar flare occurred ~ 9.9 degrees behind the solar limb as observed by STEREO-B. RHESSI observed hard X-ray emission above the limb, most likely from the flare loop-top, as the footpoints were occulted. Surprisingly, the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) detected >100 MeV gamma-rays for ~30 minutes with energies up to GeV. The LAT emission centroid is consistent with the RHESSI hard X-ray source, but its uncertainty does not constrain the source to be located there. The gamma-ray spectra can be adequately described by bremsstrahlung radiation from relativistic electrons having a relatively hard power-law spectrum with a high-energy exponential cutoff, or by the decay of pions produced by accelerated protons and ions with an isotropic pitch-angle distribution and a power-law spectrum with a number index of ~3.8. We show that high optical depths rule out the gamma rays originating from the flare site and a high-corona trap model requires very unusual conditions, so a scenario in which some of the particles accelerated by the CME shock travel to the visible side of the Sun to produce the observed gamma rays may be at work.
The energy and spectral shape of radio bursts may help us understand the generation mechanism of solar eruptions, including solar flares, CMEs, eruptive filaments, and various scales of jets. The different kinds of flares may have different characteristics of energy and spectral distribution. In this work, we selected 10 mostly confined flare events during October 2014 to investigate their overall spectral behavior and the energy emitted in microwaves by using radio observations from microwaves to interplanetary radio waves, and X-ray observations of GOES, RHESSI, and Fermi/GBM. We found that: All the confined flare events were associated with a microwave continuum burst extending to frequencies of 9.4 - 15.4 GHz, and the peak frequencies of all confined flare events are higher than 4.995 GHz and lower than or equal to 17 GHz. The median value is around 9 GHz. The microwave burst energy (or fluence) as well as the peak frequency are found to provide useful criteria to estimate the power of solar flares. The observations imply that the magnetic field in confined flares tends to be stronger than that in 412 flares studied by Nita et al. 2004. All 10 events studied did not produce detectable hard X-rays with energies above 300 keV indicating the lack of efficient acceleration of electrons to high energies in the confined flares.
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