North-south distribution of solar flares during cycle 23

In this paper, we investigate the spatial distribution of solar flares in the northern and southern hemispheres of the Sun that occurred during the period 1996 to 2003. This period of investigation includes the ascending phase, the maximum and part of the descending phase of solar cycle 23. It is revealed that the flare activity during this cycle is low compared to the previous solar cycle, indicating the violation of Gnevyshev-Ohl rule. The distribution of flares with respect to heliographic latitudes shows a significant asymmetry between northern and southern hemisphere which is maximum during the minimum phase of the solar cycle. The present study indicates that the activity dominates the northern hemisphere in general during the rising phase of the cycle (1997–2000). The dominance of northern hemisphere shifted towards the southern hemisphere after the solar maximum in 2000 and remained there in the successive years. Although the annual variations in the asymmetry time series during cycle 23 are quite different from cycle 22, they are comparable to cycle 21.     

The properties of solar active regions responsible for ground level enhancements during solar cycles 22 and 23

This is a study designed to analyze the relationship between ground level enhancements（GLEs）and their associated solar active regions during solar cycles 22and 23.Results show that 90.3%of the GLE events that are investigated are accompanied by X-class flares,and that 77.4%of the GLE events originate from super active regions.It is found that the intensity of a GLE event is strongly associated with the specific position of an active region where the GLE event occurs.As a consequence,the GLE events having a peak increase rate exceeding 50%occur in a longitudinal range from W20 to W100.Moreover,the largest GLE events occur in a heliographic longitude at roughly W60.Additionally,an analysis is made to understand the distributional pattern of the Carrington longitude of the active regions that have generated the GLE events.     

Enhanced Rieger-type periodicities' detection in X-ray solar flares and statistical validation of Rossby waves' existence

The known Rieger periodicity (ranging in literature from 150 up to 160 d) is obvious in numerous solar indices. Many subharmonic periodicities have also been observed (128-, 102-, 78- and 51-d) in flare, sunspot, radio bursts, neutrino flux and flow data, coined as Rieger-type periodicities (RTPs). Several attempts are focused to the discovery of their source, as well as the explanation of some intrinsic attributes that they present, such as their connection to extremely active flares, their temporal intermittency as well as their tendency to occur near solar maxima. In this paper, we link the X-ray flare observations made on Geosynchronous Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) to the already existing theoretical Lou model, suggesting that the mechanism behind the RTPs is the Rossby-type waves. The enhanced data analysis methods used in this article (Scargle–Lomb periodogram and Weighted Wavelet Z-Transform) provide the proper resolution needed to argue that RTPs are present also in less energetic flares, contrary to what has been inferred from observations so far.     

Measurement of linear polarization in the Hα line in solar flares

Large solar telescopes built at places with a quite excellent seeing, equipped with a sophisticated optics and control system are too expensive and unique to be used currently in hunting of sudden and short‐lasting activity events, e.g. flares and eruptive prominences. For a systematic observation of selected kinds of active phenomena it is still necessary to use smaller or medium‐sized telescopes equipped with a special setup of devices. Detection of linear polarization in the Hα line emitted in a flare seems to be just a right task and delicate matter for such a systematic observation. This kind of polarization is supposed to be generated by particle beams accelerated in thke corona and directed towards denser chromospheric layers where the particle beams deposit their kinetic energy. As the accelerated particle beams possess a preferred direction of velocity they can produce a linearly polarized light. However, the occurrence of the accelerated particle beams and the related linear polarization in the Hα line may have a tendency to appear: 1) at the early beginning of a flare 2) in pulses lasting just a few seconds or even less. To measure the linear polarization in flares regularly we have built an additional branch in the Ondřejov multichannel flare spectrograph. In this paper we describe the optical system, the detectors, the method used for data recording and reduction and we also briefly discuss the first results.     

An interpretation of rapid changes in the magnetic field associated with solar flares

The energy source of a flare is the magnetic field in the corona. A topological model of the magnetic field is used here for interpreting the recently discovered drastic changes in magnetic field associated with solar flares. The following observational results are self‐consistently explained: (1) the transverse field strength decreases at outer part of active regions and increases significantly in their centers; (2) the center‐of‐mass positions of opposite magnetic polarities converge towards the magnetic neutral line just after flares onset; (3) the magnetic flux of active regions decreases steadily during the course of flares. For X‐class flares, almost 50% events show such changes. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Changes in the photospheric magnetic field associated with solar flares

The flare-related, persistent and abrupt changes in the photospheric magnetic field have been reported by many authors during recent years. These bewildering observational results pose a challenge to the current flare theories in which the photospheric magnetic field usually remains unchanged in the eruption. In this paper, changes in the photosphere magnetic field during the solar eruption are investigated based on the catastrophe model. The results indicate that the projection effect is an important source that yields the change in the observed photospheric magnetic field in the line-of-sight. Furthermore one may observe the change in the normal component of magnetic field if the spectrum line used to measure the photospheric magnetic field does not exactly come from the photospheric surface. Our results also show that the significance of selecting the correct spectral lines to study the photospheric field becomes more apparent for the magnetic configurations with complex boundary condition (or background field).     

The shock-reprocessing model of electron acceleration in impulsive solar flares

We propose a new two-stage model for acceleration of electrons in solar flares. In the first stage, electrons are accelerated stochastically in a post-reconnection turbulent downflow. The second stage is the reprocessing of a subset of these electrons as they pass through a weakly compressive fast shock above the apex of the closed flare loop on their way to the chromosphere. We call this the 'shock-reprocessing' model. The model reproduces the sign and magnitude of the energy-dependent arrival time delays for both the pulsed and smooth component of impulsive solar flare X-rays, but requires either enhanced cooling or the presence of a loop-top trap to explain the concavity of the observed time delay energy relation for the smooth component. The model also predicts an emission site above the loop-top, as seen in the Masuda flare. The loop-top source distinguishes the shock-reprocessing model from previous models. The model makes testable predictions for the energy dependence of footpoint pulse strengths and the location and spectrum of the loop-top emission, and can account for the observed soft-hard-soft trend in the spectral evolution of footpoint emission. The model also highlights the concept that magnetic reconnection provides an environment which permits multiple acceleration processes. Which combination of processes operates within a particular flare may depend on the initial conditions that determine, for example, whether the reconnection downflow is turbulent or laminar. The shock-reprocessing model comprises one such combination.     

Magnetic flux participation in solar surface magnetism during solar cycle 24

This study aims at investigating surface magnetic flux participation among different types of magnetic features during solar cycle 24. State-of-the-art observations from SDO/HMI and Hinode/SOT are combined to form a unique database in the interval from April 2010 to October 2015. Unlike previous studies, the statistics presented in this paper are feature-detection-based. More than 20 million magnetic features with relatively large scale, such as sunspot/pore, enhanced and quiet networks, are automatically detected and categorized from HMI observations, and the internetwork features are identified from SOT/SP observations. The total flux from these magnetic features reaches 5.9×10²² Mx during solar minimum and2.4 × 10²³ Mx in solar maximum. Flux occupation from the sunspot/pore region is 29% in solar maximum.Enhanced and quiet networks contribute 18% and 21% flux during the solar minimum, and 50% and 9% flux in the solar maximum respectively. The internetwork field contributes over 55% of flux in the solar minimum, and its flux contribution exceeds that of sunspot/pore features in the solar maximum. During the solar active condition, the sunspot field increases its area but keeps constant flux density of about 150 G,while the enhanced network follows the sunspot number variation showing increasing flux density and area,but the quiet network displays decreasing area and somewhat increasing flux density of about 6%. The origin of the quiet network is not known exactly, but is suggestive of representing the interplay between mean-field and local dynamos. The source, magnitude and possible importance of ‘hidden flux' are discussed in some detail.     

Magnetic field changes associated with three successive M-class solar flares on 2002 July 26

With an extensive analysis,we study the temporal evolution of magnetic flux during three successive M-class flares in two adjacent active regions:NOAA 10039 and 10044.The primary data are full disk longitudinal magnetograms observed by SOHO/MDI.All three flares are observed to be accompanied by magnetic flux changes.The changes occurred immediately or within 1 ～ 10 minutes after the starting time of the flares,indicating that the changes are obvious consequences of the solar flares.Although changes in many ...     

Charge transfer X‐rays in solar and stellar flares

Most of the energy in a solar flare, and presumably a stellar flare as well, takes the form of a power law of energetic particles. The energetic electrons produce a bremsstrahlung continuum, while the most energetic nuclei produce gamma‐rays. Nuclei around 1 MeV/AMU can produce X‐rays during and after charge transfer with neutrals. This paper predicts the fluxes for some prominent X‐ray lines and compares them to existing spectra (© 2012 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Intermediate‐term variations in solar radius during solar cycle 23

In this study, we look for the mid‐term variations in the daily average data of solar radius measurements made at the Solar Astrolabe Station of TUBITAK National Observatory (TUG) during solar cycle 23 for a time interval from 2000 February 26 to 2006 November 15. Due to the weather conditions and seasonal effect dependent on the latitude, the data series has the temporal gaps. For spectral analysis of the data series, thus, we use the Date Compensated Discrete Fourier Transform (DCDFT) and the CLEANest algorithm, which are powerful methods for irregularly spaced data. The CLEANest spectra of the solar radius data exhibit several significant mid‐term periodicities at 393.2, 338.9, 206.5, 195.2, 172.3 and 125.4 days which are consistent with periods detected in several solar time series by several authors during different solar cycles. The knowledge relating to the origin of solar radius variations is not yet present. To see whether these variations will repeat in next cycles and to understand how the amplitudes of such variations change with different phases of the solar cycles, we need more systematic efforts and the long‐term homogeneous data. Since most of the periodicities detected in the present study are frequently seen in solar activity indicators, it is thought that the physical mechanisms driving the periodicities of solar activity may also be effective in solar radius variations (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A statistical analysis of sunspot groups hosting M and X flares

In this paper we present the results obtained from a statistical analysis carried out by correlating sunspot‐group data collected at the INAF‐Catania Astrophysical Observatory and in the NOAA reports with data on Mand X flares obtained by the GOES‐8 satellite in the soft X‐ray range during the period January 1996–June 2003. These results allow us to provide a quantitative estimate of the parameters typical for an active region with very energetic flares. Moreover, the analysis of the flare productivity as a function of the group evolutionary stage indicates that the flaring probability of sunspots slightly increases with the spot age during the first passage across the solar disk, and that flaring groups are characterized by longer lifetimes than non‐flaring ones. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

p‐mode power variation with solar atmosphere as observed in the Na D1 and K spectral lines

In this work we investigate p‐mode power variation with solar atmosphere. To this aim, we use THÉMIS observations of the Na D1 (λ 5896 Å) and K (λ 7699 Å) spectral lines. While the formation heights of the K spectral line are essentially located in the photospheric layer, the formation heights of the Na D1 line span a much wider region: from photosphere up to chromosphere. Hence, we had the opportunity to infer p‐mode power variation up to the chromospheric layer. By analyzing power spectra obtained by temporal series at different points of the Na D1 and K spectral lines, we confirm and quantify the increase in p‐mode power towards higher atmospheric layers. Furthermore, the large span in formation heights of the Na D1 line induces a larger enhancement of p‐mode power with solar atmosphere compared to the K spectral line. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Relationship between CME velocities and X-ray fluxes of associated flares

Coronal mass ejection (CME) velocities have been studied over recent decades. We present a statistical analysis of the relationship between CME velocities and X-ray fluxes of the associated flares. We study two types of CMEs. One is the FL type associ- ated only with flares, while the other is the intermediate type associated with both filament eruptions and flares. It is found that the velocities of the FL type CMEs are strongly cor- related with both the peak and the time-integrated X-ray fluxes of the associated flares. However, the correlations between the intermediate type CME velocities and the corre- sponding two parameters are poor. It is also found that the correlation between the CME velocities and the peak X-ray fluxes is stronger than that between the CME velocities and the time-integrated X-ray fluxes of the associated flares.