Observations of very small soft X-ray flares

Data obtained from a proportional counter on OSO-5 are examined to study variations in emission from individual solar active regions within the waveband 0.3–0.9 nm. Flux levels are highly variable, even from the areas having a low mean emission, because increases characteristic of X-ray flares occur most of the time. It is usual to assume that the coronal levels above a plage region are heated by a fairly continuous incident energy flux (perhaps waves), while impulsive effects associated with flares add to this over localised areas. The data given here indicate that the impulsive mechanism is probably the more important in producing the total soft X-ray flux from an active region. There is also reason to believe that many of the small flares observed are not restricted to particularly localised areas. They are of the gradual rise and fall variety which probably have an extended spatial structure. It seems possible that flare heating might account for almost the entire X-ray emission throughout the active region.     

The phase relation between sunspot numbers and soft X-ray flares

To better understand long-term flare activity, we present a statistical study on soft X-ray flares from May 1976 to May 2008. It is found that the smoothed monthly peak fluxes of C-class, M-class, and X-class flares have a very noticeable time lag of 13, 8, and 8 months in cycle 21 respectively with respect to the smoothed monthly sunspot numbers. There is no time lag between the sunspot numbers and M-class flares in cycle 22. However, there is a one-month time lag for C-class flares and a one-month time lead for X-class flares with regard to sunspot numbers in cycle 22. For cycle 23, the smoothed monthly peak fluxes of C-class, M-class, and X-class flares have a very noticeable time lag of one month, 5 months, and 21 months respectively with respect to sunspot numbers. If we take the three types of flares together, the smoothed monthly peak fluxes of soft X-ray flares have a time lag of 9 months in cycle 21, no time lag in cycle 22 and a characteristic time lag of 5 months in cycle 23 with respect to the smoothed monthly sunspot numbers. Furthermore, the correlation coefficients of the smoothed monthly peak fluxes of M-class and X-class flares and the smoothed monthly sunspot numbers are higher in cycle 22 than those in cycles 21 and 23. The correlation coefficients between the three kinds of soft X-ray flares in cycle 22 are higher than those in cycles 21 and 23. These findings may be instructive in predicting C-class, M-class, and X-class flares regarding sunspot numbers in the next cycle and the physical processes of energy storage and dissipation in the corona.     

Impulsive phase of flares in soft X-ray emission

Observations using the Bent Crystal Spectrometer instrument on the Solar Maximum Mission show that turbulence and blue-shifted motions are characteristic of the soft X-ray plasma during the impulsive phase of flares, and are coincident with the hard X-ray bursts observed by the Hard X-ray Burst Spectrometer. A method for analysing the Ca xix and Fe xxv spectra characteristic of the impulsive phase is presented. Non-thermal widths and blue-shifted components in the spectral lines of Ca xix and Fe xxv indicate the presence of turbulent velocities exceeding 100 km s^-1 and upward motions of 300–400 km s^-1.The April 10, May 9, and June 29, 1980 flares are studied. Detailed study of the geometry of the region, inferred from the Flat Crystal Spectrometer measurements and the image of the flare detected by the Hard X-ray Imaging Spectrometer, shows that the April 10 flare has two separated footpoints bright in hard X-rays. Plasma heated to temperatures greater than 10⁷ K rises from the footpoints. During the three minutes in which the evaporation process occurs an energy of 3.7 × 10³⁰ ergs is deposited in the loop. At the end of the evaporation process, the total energy observed in the loop reaches its maximum value of 3 × 10³⁰ ergs. This is consistent with the above figures, allowing for loss by radiation and conduction. Thus the energy input due to the blue-shifted plasma flowing into the flaring loop through the footpoints can account for the thermal and turbulent energy accumulated in this region during the impulsive phase.On leave from Torino University, Italy.     

Observations of limb flares with a soft X-ray telescope

The structure and evolution of 26 limb flares have been observed with a soft X-ray telescope flown on Skylab. The results are:

1. One or more well defined loops were the only structures of flare intensity observed during the rise phase and near flare maximum, except for knots which were close to the resolution of the telescope in size (≈2 arc seconds) and whose structure can therefore not be determined.
2. The flare core features were always sharply defined during the rise phase.
3. For the twenty events which contain loops, the geometry of the structure near maximum was that of a loop in ten cases, a loop with a spike at the top in four cases, a cusp or triangle in four cases, and a cusp combined with a spike in another two cases.
4. Of the fifteen cases in which sufficient data were available to allow us to follow a flare's evolution, five showed no significant geometrical deviation from a loop structure, one displayed little change except for a small scale short-lived perturbation on one side of the loop 10 seconds before a type III radio burst was observed, eight underwent a large scale deformation of the loop or loops on a time scale comparable to that of the flare itself and one double loop event changed in a complex and undetermined manner, with reconnection being one possibility.

Based on observation of the original film, it is suggested that the eight flares which underwent large scale deformations had become unstable to MHD kinks. This implies that these flares occurred in magnetic flux tubes through which significant currents were flowing. It is suggested that the high energy electrons responsible for type III bursts accompanying these flares could have been accelerated by the V x B electric field induced by a small scale short-lived perturbation of parts of a flaring flux tube, similar to the one perturbation which was observed having these characteristics.     

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     

Relationship of great soft X-ray flares with other solar activity phenomena

We present study of relationship of GSXR flares with Hα flares, hard X-ray (HXR) bursts, microwave (MW) bursts at 15.4 GHz, type II/IV radio bursts, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), protons flares (>10 MeV) and ground level enhancement (GLE) events we find that about 85.7%, 93%, 97%, 69%, 60%, 11.1%, 79%, 46%, and 23%% GSXR flares are related/associated with observed Hα flares, HXR bursts, MW bursts at 15.4 GHz, type II radio bursts, type IV radio bursts, GLE events, CMEs, halo CMEs, and proton flares (>10 MeV), respectively. In the paper we have studied the onset time delay of GSXR flares with Hα flares, HXR, and MW bursts which shows the during majority GSXR flares SXR emissions start before the Hα, HXR and MW emissions, respectively while during 15–20% of GSXR flares the SXR emissions start after the onset of Hα, HXT and MW emissions, respectively indicating two types of solar flares. The, onset time interval between SXR emissions and type II radio bursts, type IV radio bursts, GLE events CMEs, halo CMEs, and protons flares are 1–15 min, 1–20 min, 21–30 min, 21–40 min, 21–40 min, and 1–4 hrs, respectively. Following the majority results we are of the view that the present investigations support solar flares models which suggest flare triggering first in the corona and then move to chromospheres/ photosphere to starts emissions in other wavelengths. The result of the present work is largely consistent with “big flare syndrome” proposed by Kahler (1982).     

Heating and cooling of the thermal X-ray plasma in solar flares

Characteristic times for heating and cooling of the thermal X-ray plasma in solar flares are estimated from the time profile of the thermal X-ray burst and from the temperature, emission measure and over-all length scale of the flare-heated plasma at thermal X-ray maximum. The heating is assumed to be due to magnetic field reconnection, and the cooling is assumed to be due to heat conduction and radiation. Temperatures and emission measures derived from UCSD OSO-7 X-ray flare observations are used, and length scales are obtained from Big Bear large-scale Hα filtergrams for 17 small (subflare to Class 1) flares. The empirical values obtained for the characteristic times imply (1) that flares are produced by magnetic field reconnection, (2) that conduction cooling of the thermal X-ray plasma dominates radiative cooling and (3) that reconnection heating and conduction cooling of the thermal X-ray plasma are approximately in balance at thermal X-ray maximum. This model in combination with the data gives estimates for the electron number density (10¹⁰–10¹¹ cm^?3) and the magnetic field strength (10–100 G) in the thermal X-ray plasma and for the total thermal energy generated in a subflare (≈ 10³⁰ erg for an Hα area ≈ 1 square degree) which agree with previous observational and theoretical estimates obtained by others.     

X-ray nova flares

In order to find out the physical nature of galactic X-ray sources, data on variability of 24 sources during 1964–1971 have been investigated. The fluxes of 9 sources are found to be increasing to the maximum value (for several months) and then slowly decreasing (for }3 yr). These 9 sources have been related by us to the class of X-ray novae. The X-ray nova synthetic light curve has been drawn from data on the fluxes of 9 discovered novae. Assumptions have been made on the physical nature of the X-ray novae. Between the flares the X-ray novae may be weak X-ray sources with luminosity about 10³⁴ erg s^?1. During the flares the luminosity increases to about 10³⁸ erg s^?1. The number of X-ray sources in the Galaxy is about 10⁴–10⁵, the average distance between them about 0.5 kpc. The object of the optical identification may be a dwarf star of no earlier spectral class than F.     

The solar albedo of hard X-ray flares

The calculations of Compton backscattering from the solar surface of flare X-rays performed by Tomblin (1972) are extended to higher energies. It is shown that the effect is even more pronounced in the 40 keV region and that it can lead to substantial corrections to the observed X-ray spectra.     

Comparison of thermal and nonthermal hard X-ray emission in electron-heated solar flares

Using the results of numerical simulations of the solar atmospheric response to heating by nonthermal electron beams during solar flares, we have calculated the spatial and temporal evolution of both (i) the direct (beam-target) nonthermal bremsstrahlung and (ii) the thermal bremsstrahlung arising from the hot plasma energized by the electron beam. Typically, we find that below a certain cross-over energy E ^*, the emission is dominated by the thermal component, while at higher energies the direct bremsstrahlung component becomes more important. This cross-over energy is dependent on the position within the loop, generally increasing with height.We have also investigated the dependence of the cross-over energy E ^* on the parameters of the electron energy input. At the time of peak electron flux injection the cross-over energy E ^* can, for plausible parameters, be as high as 52 keV at the top 1 pixel, and as low as 16 keV at the bottom 1 pixel. We conclude that a possible reassessment of SMM HXIS data as an indicator of the thermal or nonthermal character of the primary energy release (based primarily on the geometric properties of the hard X-ray source) is required. Our results also point to the minimum photon energy that future instruments should observe (where practical, giving due consideration to detector sensitivity) in order to be sure that, in the context of the thick-target interpretation, the nonthermal component is not swamped by the self-consistent thermal counterpart created by the beam heating.     

Observations of the structure and evolution of solar flares with a soft X-ray telescope

132 soft X-ray flare events have been observed with The Aerospace Corporation/Marshall Space Flight Center S-056 X-ray telescope that was part of the ATM complement of instruments aboard Skylab. Analyses of these data are reported in this paper. The observations are summarized and a detailed discussion of the X-ray flare structures is presented. The data indicated that soft X-rays emitted by a flare come primarily from an intense well-defined core surrounded by a region of fainter, more diffuse emission. Loop structures are found to constitute a fundamental characteristic of flare cores and arcades of loops are found to play a more important role in the flare phenomena than previously thought. Size distributions of these core features are presented and a classification scheme describing the brightest flare X-ray features is proposed. The data show no correlations between the size of core features and: (1) the peak X-ray intensity, as indicated by detectors on the SOLRAD satellite; (2) the rise time of the X-ray flare event, or (3) the presence of a nonthermal X-ray component. An analysis of flare evolution indicates evidence for preliminary heating and energy release prior to the main phase of the flare. Core features are found to be remarkably stable and retain their shape throughout a flare. Most changes in the overall configuration seem to be the result of the appearance, disappearance or change in brightness of individual features, rather than the restructuring or re-orientation of these features. Brief comparisons with several theories are presented.     

Radio and soft X-ray investigation of the solar flares of February 4, 1986

In this paper, the 3B flare of February 4, 1986 is studied comprehensively. The escape electrons accelerated to 10–100 keV at the top of coronal loop are confirmed by III type bursts. The energetic electron beams moved downward trigger the eruptions in the low layer of solar atmosphere. The radio and soft X-ray bursts are interpreted, respectively, by the maser mechanism and evaporation effect. Finally, the important role of energetic electron beams in solar flares is pointed out.     

Particle acceleration and the decay of soft X-ray non-thermal line broadening in solar flares

The relationship between the production of -ray emitting particles and non-thermal soft X-ray line broadening is investigated. A model of particle acceleration via the stochastic interaction with MHD turbulence is assumed and the time development of the wave energy density derived under the condition of energy conservation between waves and particles. The inferred numbers and energy distribution of accelerated protons for four -ray flares are used to define the wave energy density and its temporal development. The presence of Alfvén wave turbulence is considered as the source of the non-thermal motions in the ambient plasma. These motions are observed as excess widths in the soft X-ray line emission from these events. The decay of the waves via the particle acceleration process is compared with the observed decays of this non-thermal line broadening. Our results show that both the -ray emission and excess soft X-ray line widths in these flares can be explained by the single physical phenomenon of Alfvén wave turbulence.     

A new microwave/X-ray diagnostic for the thermal phase of solar flares

We have observed 10 solar bursts during the thermal phase using the Haystack radio telescope at 22 GHz. We show that these high frequency flux observations, when compared with soft X-ray band fluxes, give useful information about the temperature profile in the flare loops. The microwave and X-ray band fluxes provide determinations of the maximum loop temperature, the total emission measure, and the index of the differential emission measure (q(T)/T = cT^–1). The special case of an isothermal loop ( = ) has been considered previously by Thomas et al. (1985), and we confirm their diagnostic calculations for the GOES X-ray bands, but find that the flare loops we observed departed significantly from the isothermal regime. Our results ( = 1–3.5) imply that, during the late phases of flares, condensation cooling ( 3.5) competes with radiative cooling ( 1.5). Further, our results appear to be in good agreement with previous deductions from XUV rocket spectra ( 2–3).     

X-ray emission from solar flares

Solar X-ray Spectrometer (SOXS), the first space-borne solar astronomy experiment of India was designed to improve our current understanding of X-ray emission from the Sun in general and solar flares in particular. SOXS mission is composed of two solid state detectors, viz., Si and CZT semiconductors capable of observing the full disk Sun in X-ray energy range of 4–56 keV. The X-ray spectra of solar flares obtained by the Si detector in the 4–25 keV range show evidence of Fe and Fe/Ni line emission and multi-thermal plasma. The evolution of the break energy point that separates the thermal and non-thermal processes reveals increase with increasing flare plasma temperature. Small scale flare activities observed by both the detectors are found to be suitable to heat the active region corona; however their location appears to be in the transition region.     

Soft X-ray enhancement during flares

The estimates of quiescent and flare time temperatures of soft X-ray emitting regions on the Sun are obtained for flares observed during March–August 1967 from X-ray observations in two soft X-ray bands, 2–12 Å (Explorer-33 data) and 8–12 Å (OSO-3 data). It is concluded that hot coronal condensation, originally at 2–3 × 10⁶ K, is raised to the temperature of about 4–5 × 10⁶ K and is responsible for soft X-ray enhancement.On leave from Physics Department, College of Engineering, Aurangabad, India.     

Cyclic distribution of energetic X-ray flares

The Blackman-Tukey power spectrum of flare generated X-ray bursts X1 observed from 1970 to 1982 by satellite instrumentation (SOLRAD/SMS/GOES) shows prominent peaks at 156, 4.8, 2.8, and 1.1 months. According to a statistical test of the significance of the deviation of these peaks from Markov red noise, the peaks at 2.8 and 1.1 months are significant at the 99% confidence level while the peak at 4.8 months reaches the 95% level. A replication by means of the maximum entropy spectral analysis (MEM) yields the same prominent peaks at the same frequencies.     

Hard X-ray emission in electron-heated solar flares — A comparison of nonthermal and thermal contributions

We calculate the spatial structure of hard X-ray emission during the impulsive phase of electron-heated solar flares. Both direct non-thermal bremsstrahlung and the thermal bremsstrahlung arising from the heated plasma are considered. Our results indicate that the spread of non-thermal emission into the upper parts of the loop, through evaporation of the chromospheric target, may be more important than the appearance of a hot thermal source in the corona. The effects of varying the viewing angle to the flare loop, and of finite-size resolution element, are also considered, and we compare our results with observations from the Solar Maximum Mission Hard X-Ray Imaging Spectrometer. We also contrast the predicted structures with those predicted by other models of flare energy release, and it is found that the electron-heated model provides the most satisfactory agreement with the observations.On leave from: Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland, U.K.Presidential Young Investigator.     

The interpretation of hard X-ray polarization measurements in solar flares

We review recent observations of polarization of moderately hard X-rays in solar flares and compare them with the predictions of recent detailed modeling of hard X-ray bremsstrahlung production by non-thermal electrons. We find that the recent advances in the complexity of the modeling lead to substantially lower predicted polarizations than in earlier models and more fully highlight how various parameters play a role in determining the polarization of the radiation field. The new predicted polarizations are comparable to those predicted by thermal modeling of solar flare hard X-ray production, and both are in agreement with the observations. In the light of these results, we propose new polarization observations with current generation instruments which could be used to discriminate between non-thermal and thermal models of hard X-ray production in solar flares.