Sunspot rotation and magnetic transients associated with flares in NOAA AR 11429

We analyze sunspot rotation and magnetic transients in NOAA AR 11429 during two X-class(X5.4 and X1.3)flares using data from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory.A large leading sunspot with positive magnetic polarity rotated counterclockwise.As expected,the rotation was significantly affected by the two flares.Magnetic transients induced by the flares were clearly evident in the sunspots with negative polarity.They were moving across the sunspots with speed of order 3-7 km s~(-1).Furthermore,the trend of magnetic flux evolution in these sunspots exhibited changes associated with the flares.These results may shed light on understanding the evolution of sunspots.     

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).     

A possible explanation of reversed magnetic field features observed in NOAA AR 7321

Observations of reversed-polarity features in the chromosphere as well as in the photosphere in the form of magnetic gulfs or islands of opposite polarity have been reported recently. In this paper, we present a possible explanation for the appearance of reversed-polarity features observed in the chromospheric magnetograms of the NOAA AR 7321 observed during October 25–27, 1992. It is suggested that the large-scale reversed-polarity features may occur due to the twisting of the smaller-scale magnetic flux tubes in the layer between the photosphere and the chromosphere.     

A classification of magnetic field configurations associated with solar flares

On the assumption that solar flares are due to instabilities which occur in current sheets in the Sun's atmosphere, one may classify magnetic-field configurations associated with flares into two types. One is characterized by closed current sheets, magnetic-field lines adjacent to these sheets beginning and ending at the Sun's surface. The other is characterized by open current sheets, magnetic-field lines adjacent to these sheets beginning at the Sun's surface but extending out into interplanetary space. Flares associated with open current sheets can produce Type III radio bursts and high-energy-particle events, but flares associated with closed current sheets cannot. The flare of July 6, 1966 apparently consisted of one flare of each type.     

Interplanetary consequences and geoeffectiveness of CME associated with major solar flare from NOAA AR 12673

In this reported work,we study a major X-class flare(X9.3) that arose from NOAA Active Region(AR) 12673 on 2017 September 6,from 11:53 UT to 12:10 UT in multi-wavelength views.This event also produced a fast coronal mass ejection(CME).NOAA AR 12673 emerged at S09 W30 on 2017 September6 and grew rapidly to a large AR.On 2017 September 9,the maximum area of this AR was 1060 millionth of the solar hemisphere.The group of sunspots disappeared over the west limb of the Sun(S09 W83) on September 10.It was a fast emerging flux region.The group of sunspots showed magnetic configuration category alpha-beta-gamma.We identified their earliest signatures of eruption in AIA 94A images with initialization and successive rapid growth from low coronal heights of hot channeled structures.On the other hand,the CME associated with this flare event triggered the intense Dst at 1 AU(–142 nT).We have acquired observations and analyze the reported event from the Sun's surface,corona(source AR),interplanetary space and in-situ measurement near Earth.In addition,here we analyze the complex processes of CMECME interaction that have contributed a significant role to make the reported event so geoeffective.     

Evolution of vector magnetic fields and vertical currents and their relationship with solar flares in AR 5747

NOAA 5747 was a flare-productive active region during its transit across the solar disk in October 1989. After the resolution of the 180° ambiguity of the transverse field synthetically, and transformation of vector magnetograms from the image plane to the heliographic frame, we have determined the distribution of the photospheric vertical electric current density in the active region. By analyzing the evolution of vector magnetograms and vertical current over a 6-day period (October 17–22) in the active region, we get the following results: (1) Two magnetic fluxes of opposite polarities emerged synchronously with their separating motion, one of which converged with an old magnetic structure and caused a number of flares. (2) There appeared a new current system, with the emergence of the fluxes. (3) The initial H bright kernels occurred in the vicinity of the neutral line of vertical current (J _z = 0) with a steep gradient, but not just on the sites of vertical current peaks. (4) The flares were probably triggered by the interaction between the new emerging electric current system and old current system.     

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)     

A measurement of the magnetic field direction at the site of major flares

Lundstedt et al. (1981) showed that the direction of the photospheric magnetic field at the site of a flare is a good predictor of the solar wind velocity observed at Earth four days later. We describe here how the field direction was obtained, and discuss possible errors involved in the determination of the angle. The discussion also includes a characterization of the solar active regions.Now at Institute for Astronomy, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.     

Relationship between magnetic field evolution and flaring sites in AR 6659 in June 1991

During the international campaign of June 1991, the active region AR 6659 produced six very large, long-duration flares (X10/12) during its passage across the solar disk. We present the characteristics of four of them (June 4, 6, 9, 15). Precise measurements of the spot motions from Debrecen and Tokyo white-light pictures are used to understand the fragmentation of the main sunspot group with time. This fragmentation leads to a continuous restructuring of the magnetic field pattern while rapid changes are evidenced due to fast new flux emergence (magnetograms of MFSC, Huairou). The first process leads to a shearing of the field lines along which there is energy storage; the second one is the trigger which causes the release of energy by creating a complex topology. We conjecture that these two processes with different time scales are relevant to the production of flares.     

The role of photospheric magnetic field in the development of solar flares

A statistical investigation has been made about the flare-process in relation to the photospheric magnetic field and configuration. It is understood from the analysis that the flare energy bears a linear relationship with the rate of change of flux of the longitudinal component of photospheric magnetic field.     

Long-term evolution of magnetic fields in flaring Active Region NOAA 12673

During the lifetime of AR 12673,its magnetic field evolved drastically and produced numerous large flares.In this study,using full maps of the Sun observed by t...     

The Free Energy of NOAA Solar Active Region AR 11029

The NOAA active region (AR) 11029 was a small but highly active sunspot region which produced 73 GOES soft X-ray flares during its transit of the disk in late October 2009. The flares appear to show a departure from the well-known power law frequency-size distribution. Specifically, too few GOES C-class and no M-class flares were observed by comparison with a power law distribution (Wheatland, Astrophys. J. 710, 1324, 2010). This was conjectured to be due to the region having insufficient magnetic energy to power the missing large events. We construct nonlinear force-free extrapolations of the coronal magnetic field of AR 11029 using data taken on 24 October by the SOLIS Vector SpectroMagnetograph (SOLIS/VSM) and data taken on 27 October by the Hinode Solar Optical Telescope SpectroPolarimeter (Hinode/SP). Force-free modeling with photospheric magnetogram data encounters problems, because the magnetogram data are inconsistent with a force-free model. We employ a recently developed “self-consistency” procedure which addresses this problem and accommodates uncertainties in the boundary data (Wheatland and Régnier, Astrophys. J. 700, L88, 2009). We calculate the total energy and free energy of the self-consistent solution, which provides a model for the coronal magnetic field of the active region. The free energy of the region was found to be ≈?4×10²⁹?erg on 24 October and ≈?7×10³¹?erg on 27 October. An order of magnitude scaling between RHESSI non-thermal energy and GOES peak X-ray flux is established from a sample of flares from the literature and is used to estimate flare energies from the observed GOES peak X-ray flux. Based on the scaling, we conclude that the estimated free energy of AR 11029 on 27 October when the flaring rate peaked was sufficient to power M-class or X-class flares; hence, the modeling does not appear to support the hypothesis that the absence of large flares is due to the region having limited energy.     

Magnetic field evolution during prominence eruptions and two-ribbon flares

Simple models for the MHD eruption of a solar prominence are presented, in which the prominence is treated as a twisted magnetic flux tube that is being repelled from the solar surface by magnetic pressure forces. The effects of different physical assumptions to deal with this magneto-hydrodynamically complex phenomenon are evaluated, such as holding constant the prominence current, radius, flux or twist or modelling the prominence as a current sheet. Including a background magnetic field allows the prominence to be in equilibrium initially with an Inverse Polarity and then to erupt due to magnetic non-equilibrium when the background magnetic field is too small or the prominence twist is too great. The electric field at the neutral point below the prominence rapidly increases to a maximum value and then declines. Including the effect of gravity also allows an equilibrium with Normal Polarity to exist. Finally, an ideal MHD solution is found which incorporates self-consistently a current sheet below the prominence and which implies that a prominence will still erupt and form a current sheet even if no reconnection occurs. When reconnection is allowed it is, therefore, driven by the eruption.     

Observational evidences for multi-component magnetic field structure in solar flares

Two solar flares of 25 July 1981 and 5 November 2004 of importance 2N and M4.1/1B, respectively, were investigated using observational data obtained with the Echelle spectrograph of the Kyiv University Astronomical Observatory. Stokes I and V profiles of the FeI lines 5233, 5247.1, 5250.2, 5250.6, 5576.1 and of CrI 5247.6 Å have been analyzed. We found several evidences for the existence of spatially unresolved magnetic field structures with kG strengths. In particular, the values of the measured average longitudinal field B _∥ depend on the Lande factors g of the lines: in general, B _∥ increases with increasing factor g. Analogously, the observed line ratio B _∥(5250.2)/B _∥(5247.1) is increasing with increasing distance Δλ from the line center. The observed Stokes V profiles show some deviations from that of an assumed homogeneous field, presented by the Stokes I gradient, dI/dλ. A comparison with the non-split line FeI 5576.1 Å shows that some of these deviations are real and indicate the presence of subtelescopic magnetic elements with discrete field strengths of several kG. The lines with large Lande factors have considerable broadenings of the Stokes I profiles, indicating a strong background magnetic field of mixed polarity. On the basis of all these data we conclude that a four-component magnetic field structure is a possible explanation. The field strengths are about ±1.05 kG in the background field, and 1.3?1.5, 3.9?4.0, and 7.4?7.8 kG at level of middle photosphere (h ≈ 300 km) in the spatially unresolved, small-scale magnetic elements.     

Solar wind,non-force-free magnetic field and two-ribbon flares

With the assumption that the magnetic field lines are radial at some quite high level in the solar corona, a non-constant shearing magnetic field is introduced into the magnetohydrostatic equations. It is found that a same critical amount of shearing a magnetic island is formed and then breaks out to form an open magnetic configuration in which resistive tearing-mode instability may occur, and may initiate a two-ribbon flare. In addition, high shearing magnetic fields are investigated. It is shown that high shearing magnetic configurations are weak two-dimensional neutral sheets, the instability of which has been studied by Janicke (1982).     

Vector Magnetic Field Measurement of NOAA AR 10197

A set of two-dimensional Stokes spectral data of NOAA AR 10197 obtained by the Solar Stokes Spectral Telescope (S3T) at the Yunnan Observatory are qualitatively analyzed. The three components of the vector magnetic field, the strength H, inclinationγand azimuth X, are derived. Based on the three components, we contour the distributions of the longitudinal magnetic field and transverse magnetic field. The active region (AR) has two different magnetic polarities apparent in the longitudinal magnetic map due to projection effect. There is a basic agreement on the longitudinal magnetic fields between the S3T and SOHO/MDI magnetograms, with a correlation coefficientρBl = 0.911. The transverse magnetic field of the AR has a radial distribution from a center located in the southwest of the AR. It is also found that the transverse magnetic fields obtained by Huairou Solar Observing Station (HRSOS) have a similar radial distribution. The distributions of transverse magnetic field obtained by S3T and HRSOS have correlation coefficients,ρAzimu = 0.86 andρBt = 0.883, in regard to the azimuthal angle and intensity.     

The magnetic nature of solar flares

The main challenge for the theory of solar eruptions has been to understand two basic aspects of large flares. These are the cause of the flare itself and the nature of the morphological features which form during its evolution. Such features include separating ribbons of H emission joined by a rising arcade of soft x-ray loops, with hard x-ray emission at their summits and at their feet. Two major advances in our understanding of the theory of solar flares have recently occurred. The first is the realisation that a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) catastrophe is probably responsible for the basic eruption and the second is that the eruption is likely to drive a reconnection process in the field lines stretched out by the eruption. The reconnection is responsible for the ribbons and the set of rising soft x-ray loops, and such a process is well supported by numerical experiments and detailed observations from the Japanese satellite Yohkoh. Magnetic energy conversion by reconnection in two dimensions is relatively well understood, but in three dimensions we are only starting to understand the complexity of the magnetic topology and the MHD dynamics which are involved. How the dynamics lead to particle acceleration is even less well understood. Particle acceleration in flares may in principle occur in a variety of ways, such as stochastic acceleration by MHD turbulence, acceleration by direct electric fields at the reconnection site, or diffusive shock acceleration at the different kinds of MHD shock waves that are produced during the flare. However, which of these processes is most important for producing the energetic particles that strike the solar surface remains a mystery. Received 2 January 2001 / Published online 17 July 2001