Emerging Flux and X-class Flares in NOAA 6555

The active region NOAA 6555 had several locations of highly sheared magnetic field structure, yet, only one of them was the site for all the five X-class flares during its disk passage in March 1991. The pre-flare observations of high-resolution H filtergrams, vector magnetograms and H Dopplergrams of the 2B/X5.3 flare on 25 March 1991 show that the flaring site was characterized by a new rising emerging flux region (EFR) near the highly sheared magnetic field configuration. The polarity axis of the emerging flux was nearly perpendicular to the pre-existing magnetic neutral line. The location of the EFR was the site of initial brightening in H. The post-flare magnetograms show higher magnetic shear at the flare location compared to the post-flare magnetograms, which might indicate that the EFR was sheared at the time of its emergence. As the new EFR coincided with the occurrence of the flare, we suggest that it might have triggered the observed flare. Observations from Big Bear Solar Observatory and Marshall Space Flight Center also show that there was emergence of new flux at the same location prior to two other X-class flares. We find that out of five observed X-class flares in NOAA 6555, at least in three cases there are clear signatures of flare-related flux emergence. Therefore, it is concluded that EFRs might play an important role in destabilizing the observed sheared magnetic structures leading to large X-class flares of NOAA 6555.     

Some studies on Hα-flares and microwave bursts in relation to sunspot magnetic configurations

Sunspot associated H-flares and microwave bursts occurring during the period 1972 to 1974 have been examined in relation to the magnetic strength and configurations of the sunspots and sunspot groups (abbreviated as spots). Important results obtained are: (i) percentage occurrences of flares exceeds those of microwave bursts up to a magnetic field strength of 2000 G while the reverse is true for higher field strength of spots, (ii) flare productivity (average number of flares per spot) and also burst productivity are comparatively higher in the case of and types of spots than in the case of other types of spots, (iii) the above productivities are predominantly high when magnetic configuration of spots changes during their life time, and (iv) impulsive type of microwave bursts are more associated with spots having changing type of magnetic configuration.     

Hα and hard X-ray development in two-ribbon flares

Morphological features of two-ribbon flares have been studied, using simultaneous ISEE-3 hard X-ray records and high-resolution Big Bear H movies for more than 20 events. Long-lasting and complex hard X-ray bursts are almost invariably found associated with flares of the two-ribbon type. We find at least three events, namely March 31, 1979, April 10, 1980, and July 1, 1980, where the occurrence of individual spikes in hard X-ray radiation coincides with suddenly enhanced H emission covering the sunspot penumbra. There definitely exist important ( 1B) two-ribbon H flares without significant hard X-ray emission.     

THE AMOUNT OF LITHIUM PRODUCED DURING IMPULSIVE FLARES

Recent observations have provided much real information about the acceleration of particles in solar flares. High-reliability data about accelerated particles have been obtained for an impulsive phase of some flares of the activity cycle XXII. Therefore, it seems reasonable to re-estimate the amount of Li atoms produced in the upper photospheric layers by – reactions. A value of 5 × 10 29 nuclei during the largest impulsive solar events has been found from calculations for the thick-target model. This agrees with observations of the line of lithium. In conclusion, the probability of enhanced Li absorption observed after large impulsive flares in the sunspot penumbra is discussed.     

Isophotal photometry and morphological changes in the flares

We report measurements made on the brightness in H of all parts of the flare photographed through a birefringent filter centered on H, using a scanning isodensitometer. From obtained isophotes of the flares we derived some information on the morphological changes in the flare and estimated the total energy in H of the flare.     

The fast explosive evaporation of mini black holes and flares at magnetospheres: An attractive speculative analogy

A number of suggestive coincidences are found in a purely speculative analogy between the by-products, of a minihole fast evaporation in a plasma, and by-products from flares at magnetospheres. Solar flares might serve as good examples. From an observational point of view our attention is drawn to the considerable extent of the blank time interval existing between known before and after evidences on flares, during which some exotic energy conversion processes could be invoked to explain the large amount of energy released in time-scales that might be very short. We suggest that fundamental progress in the knowledge of energy conversion, processes in flares require observational data with a time resolution several orders of magnitude, better than the currently available data, particularly, for hard X-rays.     

The north-south distribution of major solar flare events,sunspot magnetic classes and sunspot areas (1955–1974)

The north-south incidence has been studied of 31 white-light flares observed since 1859 and of 1669 events meeting the criteria for major flares of Dodson and Hedeman (1971) for the period 1955–1974. The asymmetry in favor of the northern hemisphere increases strikingly with the importance of the events. Similarly, magnetically complex sunspot groups (Mt. Wilson classes, and) display a more pronounced asymmetry in favor of the north than non-complex groups for 1962–1970. Contrary to the flare asymmetry, the spottedness asymmetry is independent of the size of sunspots.     

An analysis of type III burst occurrence in spotless regions

An analysis has been carried of the correlation of the occurrence of type III bursts and flares in spotless regions over the past ten years. As a comparison, the same study has been performed also for flares covering major sunspot umbrae (i.e. in magnetic conditions presumably opposite to the above).The results show a very low correlation of the former flares with type III bursts (8%) and a higher than average value for the latter flares (36% against the normally accepted 25%). Thus an important role of the ambient magnetic field on the generation of type III events seems well established.The effect of the presence of surges and of rapid brightness rises (flash-phases) on the correlation with these bursts has been examined: both features appear to improve the correlation.Some considerations regarding the results of other researches as compared to this one are outlined.     

Time delay between Hα and hard X-ray emissions during impulsive solar flares

This investigation shows that statistically there are significant time delays between H and hard X-ray (HXR) emissions during solar flares; most impulsive flares produce HXR emissions up to 1 min before and up to 2 min after the onset of H emission. HXR emissions are also found to be peaked up to 2 min before the H emissions.     

The abelian higgs sunspot endowed with a local conformal symmetry

We show that the requirement of alocal conformal symmetry of the Abelian Higgs sunspot leads, at least formally, to a complex-valued electromagnetic potential, whose imaginary part is a conformal compensating potential. It is shown that there exists a fundamental difference between conformal and ordinary electromagnetic fields; whereas the ordinary total magnetic flux of a spot is quantized its conformal analogue has to vanish if the Higgs field is to be single-valued. We further stress that such a complex-valued Abelian Higgs field configuration mimics quite well, under certain conditions (all the salient features of) the classical Abelian Higgs sunspot.     

Umbral flares

H flare patches usually do not occur in sunspot umbrae. Presented here are cases of a type of umbral flare in which the flare patch originated in, and was confined to, the p spot umbra. All are H subflares. Two of the four flares were accompanied by type III radio bursts. The simplicity and similarity of the magnetic fields of these regions were striking.     

A physical mechanism for the production of solar flares

The weakly ionized photospheric layer in the sunspot environment satisfies certain dynamo inequalities (Equations (11) and (13)) resulting in photospheric Hall current systems. The corresponding Joule dissipation is associated with the surrounding plage area. For critical values of the driving or convective winds (speeds 1 km/s), two stream instability results. The computed energy is of the order of that found in solar flares.     

Decameter storm radiation,I

A log-periodic array, 3 km long in the E-W direction is in operation at the Clark Lake Radio Observatory. The solar brightness distribution is swept once per second in the 65-20 MHz frequency range. The analysis of the interferometer records allows the determination of one dimensional solar burst positions, to an accuracy of 0.1 R at 60 MHz and 0.3 R at 30 MHz, approximately.Six long duration noise storms have been observed over an eight month period, extending from January to September, 1971. The storms are described and their relation to chromospheric active regions and flares is discussed. Decametric storms are found to be related to complexes of interacting active regions. The interaction is studied in terms of the number of simultaneous flares observed to occur in the various active regions. On the average, twice as many simultaneous flares are observed than would be expected if flares occurred at random. An analysis of coronal magnetic field maps computed from longitudinal photospheric fields shows magnetic arcades and some divergent field lines at the site of storm regions. Decimeter and meter wavelength sources are found to be associated with all decameter storms. At decimeter wavelengths double or multiple sources are often seen above individual active regions forming part of the chromospheric complex.     

High-resolution photography of the solar chromosphere

High-resolution filtergrams of a sunspot and its surroundings, taken at seven wavelengths in H with the aid of a computer-controlled 1/8 Å filter, have been used to derive the contrast of ten sunspot superpenumbra fibrils as functions of wavelength. The observed contrast profiles are compared with profiles calculated on the basis of three theoretical models, namely, Beckers' (1964) cloud model, Athay's (1970) velocity model, and a pure Doppler shift model. However, none of these models in their present form account for all the observed profiles.Arguments are presented which suggest that, in addition to line-of-sight velocity, the height of a moving chromospheric structure relative to the region over which the H line is formed plays a decisive role in shaping the observed profile. Improvements to existing theoretical treatments are suggested.The nature of the fibril velocity field is discussed briefly.     

The flares of August 1972

We present the analysis of observations of the August flares at Big Bear and Tel Aviv, involving monochromatic movies, magnetograms and spectra. In each flare the observations fit a model of particle acceleration in the chromosphere with emission produced by impact and by heating by the energetic electrons and protons. The region showed inverted polarity and high gradients from birth, and flares appear due to strong magnetic shears and gradients across the neutral line produced by sunspot motions. Post flare loops show a strong change from sheared, force-free fields parallel to potential-field-like loops, perpendicular to the neutral line above the surface.We detected fast (5 s duration) small (1') flashes in 3835 at the footpoints of flux loops in the August 2 impulsive flare at 1838 UT, which may be explained by dumping of > 50 keV electrons accelerated in individual flux loops. The flashes show excellent time and intensity agreement with > 45 keV X-rays. In the less impulsive 2000 UT flare a less impulsive wave of emission in 3835 moved with the separating footpoints. The thick target model of X-ray production gives a consistent model for X-ray, 3835 and microwave emission in the 18:38 UT event.Spectra of the August 7 flare show emission 12 Å FWHM in flare kernels, but only 1 to 2 Å wide in the rest of the flare. The kernels thus produce most of the H emission. The total emission in H in the August 4 and August 7 flares was about 2 × 10³⁰ erg. We belive this dependable value more accurate than previous larger estimates for great flares. The time dependence of total H emission agrees with radio and X-ray data much better than area measurements which depend on the weaker halo.Absorption line spectra show a large (6 km/s^-1) photospheric velocity discontinuity across the neutral line, corresponding to sheared flow across that line.This work has been supported by NASA under NGR 05 002 034, NSF Atmospheric Sciences program under GA 24015, and AFCRL under FI9628-73-C-0085.     

Studies of solar flares using optical,X-ray and radio data

I have studied a number of flares for which good X-ray and optical data were available. An average lag of 5.5 s between hard X-ray (HXR) start and H start, and HXR peak and Ha peak was found for 41 flares for which determination was possible. Allowing for time constants the time lag is zero. The peak H lasts until 5–6 keV soft X-ray (SXR) peak. The level of H intensity is determined by the SXR flux.Multiple spikes in HXR appear to correspond to different occurrences in the flare development. Flares with HXR always have a fast H rise. Several flares were observed in the 3835 band; such emission appears when the 5.1–6.6 keV flux exceeds 5 × 10⁴ ph cm^-2 s^-1 at the Earth. Smaller flares produce no 3835 emission; we conclude that coronal back conduction cannot produce the bright chromospheric network of that wavelength.The nearly simultaneous growth of H emission at distant points means an agent travelling faster than 5 × 10³ km s^-1 is responsible, presumably electrons.In all cases near the limb an elevated Ha source is seen with the same time duration as HXR flux; it is concluded that this H source is almost always an elevated cloud which is excited by the fast electrons. A rough calculation is given. Another calculation of H emission from compressed coronal material shows it to be inadequate.In several cases homologous flares occur within hours with the same X-ray properties.Radio models fit, more or less, with field strengths on the order of 100G. A number of flares are discussed in detail.     

Energy release in solar flares

We examine observational evidence concerning energy release in solar flares. We propose that different processes may be operative on four different time scales: (a) on the sub-second time scale of sub-bursts which are a prominent feature of mm-wave microwave records; (b) on the few-seconds time scale of elementary bursts which are a prominent feature of hard X-ray records; (c) on the few-minutes time scale of the impulsive phase; and (d) on the tens-of-minutes or longer time scale of the gradual phase.We propose that the concentration of magnetic field into magnetic knots at the photosphere has important consequences for the coronal magnetic-field structure such that the magnetic field in this region may be viewed as an array of elementary flux tubes. The release of the free energy of one such tube may produce an elementary burst. The development of magnetic islands during this process may be responsible for the sub-bursts. The impulsive phase may be simply the composite effect of many elementary bursts.We propose that the gradual phase of energy release, with which flares typically begin and with which many flares end, involves a steady process of reconnection, whereas the impulsive phase involves a more rapid stochastic process of reconnection which is a consequence of mode interaction.In the case of two-ribbon flares, the late part of the gradual phase may be attributed to reconnection of a large current sheet which is being produced as a result of filament eruption. A similar process may be operative in smaller flares.Also, Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University.     

Solar irradiance variations from photometry of active regions

The Extreme Limb Photometer (ELP) has been used to measure the irradiance fluctuation of the Sun due to selected active regions. Forty-five active regions that were completely scanned at various disk positions are included in the analysis. The contribution of these active regions to a global solar irradiance fluctuation has been correlated with photometric sunspot and facular indices (PSI and PFI) using published values of sunspot and calcium plage areas. The measured ELP fluctuations are converted to a global brightness fluctuation, B/B. The sunspot component of B/B correlates with PSI with r = 0.95. The facular component of B/B correlates with PFI with r - 0.72. The expression for PFI is important to the question of energy balance between sunspots and faculae and the results presented here are not incompatible with energy balance between the two phenomena; that is the energy deficit of sunspots may be balanced by the energy excess of faculae.     

Solar soft X-rays and solar activity

Soft solar X-rays (8 gl 12 Å) were observed from OSO-III. An analysis of the X-ray enhancements associated with 165 solar flares revealed that there is a tendency for a weak soft X-ray enhancement to precede the cm- burst and H flare. The peak soft X-ray flux follows the cm- peak by about 4 min, on the average. Additionally, it was found that flare-rich active centers tend to produce flares which are stronger X-ray and cm- emitters than are flares which take place in flare-poor active centers.     

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.