Dependence of large SEP events with different energies on the associated flares and CMEs

To investigate the dependence of large gradual solar energetic particle(SEP) events on the associated flares and coronal mass ejections(CMEs), the correlation coefficients(CCs) between peak intensities of E 10 MeV(I_(10)), E 30 MeV(I_(30)) and E 50 MeV(I_(50)) protons and soft X-ray(SXR) emission of associated flares and the speeds of associated CMEs in the three longitudinal areas W0–W39, W40–W70(hereafter the well connected region) and W71–W90 have been calculated.Classical correlation analysis shows that CCs between SXR emission and peak intensities of SEP events always reach their largest value in the well connected region and then decline dramatically in the longitudinal area outside the well connected region, suggesting that they may contribute to the production of SEPs in large SEP events. Both classical and partial correlation analyses show that SXR fluence is a better parameter describing the relationship between flares and SEP events. For large SEP events with source location in the well connected region, the CCs between SXR fluence and I_(10), I_(30) and I_(50) are0.58±0.12, 0.80±0.06 and 0.83±0.06 respectively, while the CCs between CME speed and I_(10), I_(30) and I_(50) are 0.56±0.12, 0.52±0.13 and 0.48±0.13 respectively. The partial correlation analyses show that in the well connected region, both CME shock and SXR fluence can significantly affect I_(10), but SXR peak flux makes no additional contribution. For E 30 MeV protons with source location in the well connected region, only SXR fluence can significantly affect I_(30), and the CME shock makes a small contribution to I_(30), but SXR peak flux makes no additional contribution. For E 50 MeV protons with source location in the well connected region, only SXR fluence can significantly affect I_(50), but both CME shock and SXR peak flux make no additional contribution. We conclude that these findings provide statistical evidence that for SEP events with source locations in the well connected region, a CME shock is only an effective accelerator for E 30 MeV protons. However, flares are not only effective accelerators for E 30 MeV protons, but also for E 30 MeV protons, and E 30 MeV protons may be mainly accelerated by concurrent flares.     

Study of temporal and spectral characteristics of the X-ray emission from solar flares

Temporal and spectral characteristics of X-ray emission from 60 flares of intensity ≥C class observed by the Solar X-ray Spectrometer(SOXS) during 2003–2011 are presented. We analyze the X-ray emission observed in four and three energy bands by the Si and Cadmium-Zinc-Telluride(CZT)detectors, respectively. The number of peaks in the intensity profile of the flares varies between 1 and 3. We find moderate correlation(R ≈0.2) between the rise time and the peak flux of the first peak of the flare irrespective of energy band, which is indicative of its energy-independent nature. Moreover, the magnetic field complexity of the flaring region is found to be highly anti-correlated(R = 0.61) with the rise time of the flares while positively correlated(R = 0.28) with the peak flux of the flare. The time delay between the peak of the X-ray emission in a given energy band and that in 25–30 keV decreases with increasing energy, suggesting conduction cooling is dominant in the lower energies. Analysis of 340 spectra from 14 flares reveals that the peak of differential emission measure(DEM) evolution is delayed by 60–360 s relative to that of the temperature, and this time delay is inversely proportional to the peak flux of the flare. We conclude that temporal and intensity characteristics of flares are dependent on energy as well as the magnetic field configuration of the active region.     

FIARE ACTIVITY AND EVOLUTION WITHIN AR5629

The middle ten days of August,1989 was one of the peak times of solar activity.During the period the solar indices such as 10cm radio flux,relative sunspot number,spot area,X—ray flux,proton fluence and electron fluence had a evidently rising.Espec-ially,the X—ray background flux went so far as to C7.9 on Aug.16.The main reason for     

Geoeffectiveness of the coronal mass ejections associated with solar proton events

The intensity-time profiles of solar proton events(SPEs) are grouped into three types in the present study. The Type-I means that the intensity-time profile of an SPE has one peak, which occurs shortly after the associated solar flare and coronal mass ejection(CME). The Type-II means that the SPE profile has two peaks: the first peak occurs shortly after the solar eruption, the second peak occurs at the time when the CME-driven shock reaches the Earth, and the intensity of the second peak is lower than the first one.If the intensity of the second peak is higher than the first one, or the SPE intensity increases continuously until the CME-driven shock reaches the Earth, this kind of intensity-time profile is defined as Type-III. It is found that most CMEs associated with Type-I SPEs have no geoeffectiveness and only a small part of CMEs associated with Type-I SPEs can produce minor(–50 n T ≤ Dst ≤–30 n T) or moderate geomagnetic storms(–100 n T≤ Dst ≤–50 n T), but never an intense geomagnetic storm(–200 n T ≤ Dst -100 n T). However,most of the CMEs associated with Type-II and Type-III SPEs can produce intense or great geomagnetic storms(Dst ≤-200 n T). The solar wind structures responsible for the geomagnetic storms associated with SPEs with different intensity-time profiles have also been investigated and discussed.     

Design and performance study of the HEPP-H calorimeter onboard the CSES satellite

The China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite(CSES) will investigate iono-magnetospheric disturbance and will monitor the temporal stability of the inner Van Allen radiation belts.In particular,the mission aims at confirming the existences of a temporal correlation between the occurrence of earthquakes and the observation of electromagnetic disturbances, plasma fluctuations and anomalous fluxes of high-energy particles precipitating from the inner Van Allen belt in space.The high energy detector of the High Energy Particle Package(HEPP-H) is a payload onboard CSES and is designed for detecting electrons(2–50 MeV) and protons(20–200 MeV) in its 500 km orbit above Earth.CSES was launched in February 2018.In this paper, the instrumentation and development of the HEPP-H calorimeter are described.The calibration with beam particles(electrons and protons) is discussed in detail.     

Space Observation and Study of the Sun.

The ejection of energetic electrons and protons,and γ-ray burst are revealed by solar space observations,which have confirmed some related theories of solar radio emission and uncovered the nuclear reaction in flares.The difference and relationship between CME and plasma cloud in flares are shown by space observations.The hot and cold regions of flares are known.The theory of nonlinear magnetohydrodynamics is developed by solar and heliospheric magnetic field observations.     

Repercussions of solar high energy protons on ozone layer during super storms

We are very aware of the importance of the ozone layer, without which life on the Earth would not have evolved in the way it has. Solar storms carry energetic protons into the Earth's upper atmosphere,where they boost production of nitrogen oxides which are known as ozone killers and which ultimately increase ultraviolet(UV) radiations. In the present study, we estimate the effects of solar energetic protons during super storms(Dst index -300 nT) over the total ozone column for the last 32 yr. We select a total of seven super storm events that occurred during solar cycles 22–24(for the last 32 yr) having Dst index -300 nT. To that end, we apply superposed epoch analysis(SEA) to verify the impact of storm events on the quantitative variation of total ozone column and on UV radiations during super storm events.After completing the empirical analysis, we conclude that the ozone column gets depleted significantly(22±6.8%) as proton density increases during super storm events and this decrement in the ozone level is further responsible for a substantial increase(26±11.2%) in peak UV radiation intensities.     

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.     

Formation of Transient Coronal Holes during the Eruption of a Quiescent Filament and its Overlying Sigmoid

By using Hα, He I 10830, EUV and soft X-ray (SXR) data, we examined a filament eruption that occurred on a quiet-sun region near the center of the solar disk on 2006 January 12, which disturbed a sigmoid overlying the filament channel observed by the GOES-12 SXR Imager (SXI), and led to the eruption of the sigmoid. The event was associated with a partial halo coronal mass ejection (CME) observed by the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraphs (LASCO) on board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), and resulted in the formation of two flare-like ribbons, post-eruption coronal loops, and two transient coronal holes (TCHs), but there were no significantly recorded GOES or Hα flares corresponding to the eruption. The two TCHs were dominated by opposite magnetic polarities and were located on the two ends of the eruptive sigmoid. They showed similar locations and shapes in He Ⅰ 10830, EUV and SXR observations. During the early eruption phase, brightenings first appeared on the locations of the two subsequent TCHs, which could be clearly identified on He Ⅰ 10830, EUV and SXR images. This eruption could be explained by the magnetic flux rope model, and the two TCHs were likely to be the feet of the flux rope.     

Solar cycle distribution of major geomagnetic storms

We examine the solar cycle distribution of major geomagnetic storms (Dst ≤ -100 nT), including intense storms at the level of- 200 nT< Dst ≤-100 nT, great storms at -300 nT< Dst ≤-200 nT, and super storms at Dst ≤-300 nT, which occurred during the period of 1957-2006, based on Dst indices and smoothed monthly sunspot numbers. Statistics show that the majority (82%) of the geomagnetic storms at the level of Dst ≤-100 nT that occurred in the study period were intense geomagnetic storms, with 12.4% ranked as great storms and 5.6% as super storms. It is interesting to note that about 27% of the geomagnetic storms that occurred at all three intensity levels appeared in the ascending phase of a solar cycle, and about 73% in the descending one. Statistics also show that 76.9% of the intense storms, 79.6% of the great storms and 90.9% of the super storms occurred during the two years before a solar cycle reached its peak, or in the three years after it. The correlation between the size of a solar cycle and the percentage of major storms that occurred, during the period from two years prior to maximum to three years after it, is investigated. Finally, the properties of the multi-peak distribution for major geomagnetic storms in each solar cycle is investigated.     

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 ...     

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.     

Size-Flux Relation in Solar Active Regions

We present a study of the relationship between integral area and corresponding total magnetic flux for solar active regions. It is shown that some of these relationships are satisfied to simple power laws. Fractal examination showed that some of these power laws can not be justified inside the simple models of stationary magnetic flux tube aggregation. All magnetic fluxes and corresponding areas were calculated using the data measured with the Solar Magnetic Field Telescope of the Huairou Solar Observing Station in Beijing.     

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.     

A magnetic confinement nuclear fusion mechanism for solar flares

We propose a magnetic confinement nuclear fusion mechanism for the evolution of a solar flare in the solar atmosphere.The mechanism agrees with two observed characteristics of explosive flares and coronal mass ejections(CMEs) that have proved to be very difficult to explain with previous mechanisms:the huge enrichments of3 He and the high energy gamma ray radiation.The twisted magnetic flux rope is a typical structure during the solar flares,which is closely related to the solar active region that magnetic fields have almost complete control over the plasma.Consequently,the plasma inside the flux rope is heated to more than 1.0×107 K by an adiabatic compression process,and then the thermonuclear fusion can take place in the flux rope accompanied with high energy gamma rays.We utilize the time-dependent ideal 2.5-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic(MHD) simulation to demonstrate the physical mechanism for producing flares,which reveals three stages of flare development with the process of magnetic energy conversion and intense release during the solar flares and CMEs in the solar atmosphere.Furthermore,we discuss the relationship between magnetic reconnection and solar eruptions.     

A study of short-period variation in solar activity

We introduce two methods to detect short-period variation in solar activity.These are called amplitude of low frequency fluctuation(ALFF) and fractional amplitude of low frequency fluctuation(FALFF). We find a positive correlation between short-period variation and 11-year variation of solar activity using these two methods.Through ALFF,we find that solar activity over a short period becomes intensive when the 11-year solar activity is intensive. The ALFF value of the short period activity varies with the peak in sunspot number as a quadratic function. Through FALFF we find that the ratio of short-period spectral intensity to intensity over the whole period of solar activity will increase when the 11-year period of solar activity is intensive.The short-period FALFF value varies with the peak in sunspot number according to a cubic function. Using ALFF,we obtain a yearly series of solar activity that varies over a short period of 1–5 yr from 1860 to 2003,which shows an obvious periodicity of about 22 yr,33 yr,11 yr and a century. These short period variations show good correlations with long term variations in solar activity.     

Spectral energy distributions for TeV blazars

In this work, we collected a sample of 69 TeV blazars from TeVCat, obtained their multiwavelength observations, and fitted their spectral energy distributions by using a second degree polynomial function. The structure parameters of synchrotron bumps for 68 blazars and those of inverseCompton bumps for 56 blazars were derived. Then, we conducted statistical analysis on the parameters(curvature, peak frequency, peak luminosity, bolometric luminosity and X/γ-ray spectral indexes).From our analysis and discussions, we can conclude the following:(1) There is a clear positive correlation between the synchrotron peak frequency, log ν_p~s, and the inverse-Compton peak frequency, log ν_p~(IC),and between the synchrotron peak luminosity, log ν_p~sL_(νp)~s, and the inverse-Compton peak luminosity,log ν_p~(IC)L_(νp)~(IC).(2) The correlation between the peak frequency and the curvature of synchrotron bump is clearly different from that of the inverse-Compton bump, which further indicates that there are different emission mechanisms between them.(3) There is a correlation between log νIC pand γ-ray spectral index, α_γ, for the TeV blazars: log ν_p~(IC)=-(4.59 ± 0.30)α_γ+(32.67 ± 0.59), which is consistent with previous work.(4) An "L-shape" relation is found between log ν_p~s and α_X for both TeV blazars and Fermi blazars. A significant correlation between log νs pand X-ray photon index(α_X) is found for the TeV blazars with high synchrotron peak frequency: log ν_p~s=-(3.20 ± 0.34)α_X+(24.33 ± 0.79),while the correlation is positive for low synchrotron peaked TeV sources.(5) In the αX-αγdiagram,there is also an "L-shape." The anti-correlation is consistent with results available in the literature, and we also find a positive correlation between them.(6) Inverse-Compton dominant sources have luminous bolometric luminosities.     

Testing a solar coronal magnetic field extrapolation code with the Titov–Dmoulin magnetic flux rope model

In the solar corona, the magnetic flux rope is believed to be a fundamental structure that accounts for magnetic free energy storage and solar eruptions. Up to the present, the extrapolation of the magnetic field from boundary data has been the primary way to obtain fully three-dimensional magnetic information about the corona. As a result, the ability to reliably recover the coronal magnetic flux rope is important for coronal field extrapolation. In this paper, our coronal field extrapolation code is examined with an analytical magnetic flux rope model proposed by Titov D′emoulin, which consists of a bipolar magnetic configuration holding a semi-circular line-tied flux rope in force-free equilibrium. By only using the vector field at the bottom boundary as input, we test our code with the model in a representative range of parameter space and find that the model field can be reconstructed with high accuracy. In particular, the magnetic topological interfaces formed between the flux rope and the surrounding arcade, i.e., the "hyperbolic flux tube" and "bald patch separatrix surface," are also reliably reproduced. By this test, we demonstrate that our CESE–MHD–NLFFF code can be applied to recovering the magnetic flux rope in the solar corona as long as the vector magnetogram satisfies the force-free constraints.     

Is the enhancement of type Ⅱ radio bursts during CME interactions related to the associated solar energetic particle event?

We investigated 64 pairs of interacting-CME events identified from simultaneous observations by the SOHO and STEREO spacecraft from January 2010 to August 2014, to examine the relationship between large SEP events in the energy range of ～25 to～60 MeV and properties of the interacting CMEs.We found that during CME interactions, the large SEP events in this study were all generated by CMEs with the presence of enhanced type Ⅱ radio bursts, which also have wider longitudinal distributions compared to events without a type Ⅱ radio burst or its enhancement(almost always associated with small SEP events).It seems that the signature of type Ⅱ radio burst enhancement is a good discriminator between large SEP and small or no SEP event producers during CME interactions. The type Ⅱ radio burst enhancement is more likely to be generated by CME interactions, with the main CME having a larger speed(v), angular width(WD), mass(m) and kinetic energy(Ek), and taking over the preceding CMEs. The preceding CMEs in these instances have higher v, WD, m and Ekthan those in CME pairs missing type Ⅱ radio bursts or enhancements. Generally, the values of these properties in the type-Ⅱ-enhanced events are typically higher than the corresponding non-type-Ⅱ or non-type-Ⅱ-enhanced cases for both the main and preceding CMEs. Our analysis also revealed that the intensities of associated SEP events correlate negatively with the intersection height of the two CMEs. Moreover, the overlap width of two CMEs is typically larger in type-Ⅱ-enhanced events than in non-type-Ⅱ or non-type-Ⅱ-enhanced events. Most type-Ⅱ-enhanced events and SEP events are coincident and are almost always made by the fast and wide main CMEs that sweep fully over relatively slower and narrower preceding CMEs. We suggest that a fast CME with enough energy completely overtaking a relatively narrower preceding CME, especially at low height, can drive a more energetic shock signified by the enhanced type Ⅱ radio bursts. The shock may accelerate ambient particles(likely provided by the preceding CME) and lead to large SEP events more easily.     

Spotless days and geomagnetic index as the predictors of solar cycle 25

We study the sunspot activity in relation to spotless days(SLDs) during the descending phase of solar cycles 11-24 to predict the amplitude of sunspot cycle 25.For this purpose,in addition to SLD,we also consider the geomagnetic activity(aa index) during the descending phase of a given cycle.A very strong correlation of the SLD(0.68) and aa index(0.86) during the descending phase of a given cycle with the maximum amplitude of next solar cycle has been estimated.The empirical relationship led us to deduce the amplitude of cycle 25 to be 99.13± 14.97 and 104.23± 17.35 using SLD and aa index,respectively as predictors.Both the predictors provide comparable amplitude for solar cycle 25 and reveal that solar cycle 25 will be weaker than cycle 24.Further,we predict that the maximum of cycle 25 is likely to occur between February and March 2024.While the aa index has been utilized extensively in the past,this work establishes SLDs as another potential candidate for predicting the characteristics of the next cycle.