Characteristics of weak bursts of the soft component of solar X-ray radiation

We used the RF-15I-2 X-ray detector to study bursts of the soft component of the solar X-ray radiation. Weak bursts with fluxes less than 10^?8 W m^?2 were detected, and their characteristics were determined.     

Homology of X-ray bursts

Conclusions The present paper demonstrates on the basis of 2 series of events that one can extend the homology so far known for optical and radio flares also to the hard and soft X-ray bursts.The studied homologous X-ray flares occurred in the same active region and their time-intensity profiles were very similar. It has been found that the detected homologous X-ray bursts are associated with radio bursts that also are homologous. The time profile of centimeter radio bursts frequently is repeated in detail when compared with the time profile of X-ray bursts as one can see in Figure 1. This very close correspondence suggests that the centimeter radio bursts and X-ray bursts are generated simultaneously during flares, probably in the same region (Sengupta, 1968). Arnoldy et al. (1968) have found a detailed correlation between the time-intensity profiles of hard X-ray bursts and 3 or 10 cm radio bursts. This close correlation between the hard X-ray bursts and centimeter radio bursts leads to a suggestion that the hard X-ray and centimeter radio bursts are generated by the same electrons. On the basis of these considerations one can more easily understand the homology of both the X-ray bursts and the radio bursts. The occurrence of homologous bursts then can be explained by an existence of regions on the sun in which for a certain time (48 h after Fokker) the same conditions are maintained in the acceleration of the electrons generating the X-ray and radio bursts.     

Solar cycle variation of long duration 10.7 cm and soft X-ray bursts

Gradual rise-and-fall (GRF) microwave bursts and long duration soft X-ray events (LDEs) are generally accompanied by solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs). We use reports from the Ottawa and Penticton stations to examine the annual variations from 1965 to 1985 of 10.7 cm GRF bursts with total durations of at least 4 hr. The annual numbers of such bursts are well correlated with the quiet-Sun 10.7 cm flux densities. This result is in contrast with the finding of Koomen et al. (1985) that the annual numbers of 4 hr GOES soft X-ray events are not well correlated with sunspot numbers. We show that the latter result is biased by the large variation of the quiet-Sun X-ray background throughout the solar cycle. Four-hour events are more easily detected in X-ray data than in 10.7 cm data at solar minimum, but, conversely, these events are much more easily detected in 10.7 cm data around solar maximum. About 70% of the most energetic CMEs are associated with 4 hr X-ray or 10.7 cm bursts. A one-to-one relationship does not exist between CMEs and either LDEs or GRF bursts viewed in full-Sun detectors.     

Microflares and thermal background of the solar corona

We investigate low-intensity microflares in the soft component of the solar X-ray radiation over the period from September through December 1995 within the framework of the Interball—Geotail project. We derived the intensity distribution of microflares and found correlations between the daily mean peak fluxes of X-ray bursts from microflares of various classes and the daily mean values of the thermal background of the solar corona.     

Hard X-ray bursts from flares behind the solar limb

The determination of the location of the region of origin of hard X-rays is important in evaluating the importance of 10–100 keV electrons in solar flares and in understanding flare particle acceleration. At present only limb-occulted events are available to give some information on the height of X-ray emission. In fifteen months of OSO-7 operation, nine major soft X-ray events had no reported correlated Hα flare. We examine the hard X-ray spectra of eight of these events with good candidate X-ray flare producing active regions making limb transit at the time of the soft X-ray bursts. All eight bursts had significant X-ray emission in the 30–44 keV range, but only one had flux at the 3σ level above 44 keV. The data are consistent with most X-ray emission occurring in the lower chromosphere, but some electron trapping at high altitudes is necessary to explain the small nonthermal fluxes observed.     

A Study of Solar Radio Bursts with Fine Structures during Flare/CME Events

We have selected 27 solar microwave burst events recorded by the Solar Broadband Radio Spectrometer (SBRS) of China, which were accompanied by M/X class flares and fast CMEs. A total of 70.4% of radio burst events peak at 2.84 GHz before the peaks of the related flares’ soft X-ray flux with an average time difference of about 6.7 minutes. Almost all of the CMEs start before or around the radio burst peaks. At 2.6?–?3.8 GHz bandwidth, 234 radio fine structures (FSs) were classified. More often, some FSs appear in groups, which can contain several individual bursts. It is found that many more radio FSs occur before the soft X-ray maxima and even before the peaks of radio bursts at 2.84 GHz. The events with high peak flux at 2.84 GHz have many more radio FSs and the durations of the radio bursts are independent of the number of radio FSs. Parameters are given for zebra patterns, type III bursts, and fiber structures, and the other types of FSs are described briefly. These radio FSs include some special types of FSs such as double type U bursts and W-type bursts.     

The X-ray and extreme ultraviolet radiation of the August 28, 1966 proton flare as deduced from sudden ionospheric disturbance data

Ionospheric data show that a very large burst of extreme ultraviolet radiation of about 7 ergs cm^?2 sec^?1 above the earth's atmosphere occurred during the proton flare of August 28, 1966. The time dependence of this burst agrees closely with the 8800 and 10700 MHz solar radio bursts and does not agree with solar radio bursts at frequencies less than 2800 MHz. The soft X-ray enhancement deduced from ionospheric data peaked about 4 min after the EUV burst.     

Evidence for beamed electrons in a limb X-ray flare observed by HXIS

X-ray images taken by the Hard X-Ray Imaging Spectrometer (HXIS) aboard SMM during the 1980, November 18 limb flare are analysed. The temporal and spatial evolutions of the X-radiation are described. They differ significantly for hard and soft X-rays. During the elementary flare bursts energetic photons are predominantly emitted from a region close to the solar limb. In contrast, the soft X-ray sources are situated higher in the solar atmosphere. The observed X-ray spectra, in particular those emitted from small source regions at various altitudes, were fitted to power laws. Analysis of the spatial variation of the spectral index shows that there is a systematic tendency of the spectra to get harder with decreasing source altitude, especially during the elementary flare bursts. This fact is in agreement with the existence of nonthermal electron beams precipitating from the corona towards the denser layers of the solar atmosphere.     

Frequency response of magnetic flux sheaths

We suggest to identify the elementary flare bursts with the excitation of the small kernels that occur in flare loops that are observed in soft X-ray pictures of flares. We stress the need of simultaneous observations of spatial structure and time variations of hard X-ray bursts sources in various wavelength regions.     

A brief description of observational results from the supersoft X-ray detector aboard Shenzhou-2

Observational results from the supersoft X-ray detector (SD) aboard the spacecraft Shenzhou-2 are briefly described. The resultspertain to cosmic γ-ray bursts solar x-ray bursts, high-energy charged particles and soft X-ray background radiation. The detector is a proportional counter with a polypropylene thin-film window of 50 mm diameter, it operates in the energy range 0.23–3.0keV covered by six energy channels. Two grades of time resolution are used: 40 ms for recording burst events and 520 ms when there is no triggering signal resulted from a burst event. Figures 1 and 2 show the light curves and energy spectra of two cosmic γ-ray bursts (starting time 2001 Jan 17, 09:37:25.21 UT and 2001 Mar 9, 12:33:55.692 UT), and Figures 3 and 4, the results on two solar X-ray burst (2001 Apr 6, 19:14:09.11 UT, and 2001 May 20, 06:02:12.58 UT). The detector records the ambient high-energy charged particles when there is no burst event and the shutter of the window is closed. 110 data sets of high-energy charged particles along the spacecraft orbit have been collected. As examples, the variations of the particle counting rate along the orbit are shown in Figs. 6a, 6b, 8e, 8f and 7. More than 10 events of particle precipitation induced by solar proton events have also been recorded, some of which are displayed in Figs.6c–6f and 7. Some of the data of soft X-ray background radiation shown in Fig. 8 were obtained when the shutter was open, and they are important for the data processing of the burst events.     

太阳短厘米波爆发中双重准周期脉动现象产生的可能机制

1990年5月23日0400—0451UT期间在遥隔两地的南大天文台与北师大天文台和北京天文台用时间分辨率1s和10ms分别在波长3.2cm、2cm和10.6cm上进行了太阳射电爆发的同时观测.发现了短厘米波爆发中的双重准周期脉动现象.本文根据这些观测资料连同S.G.D.发表的有关射电、光学和软X射线(SXR)耀斑等数据,提出了一个在耀(斑)环内非热与热辐射过程中由于相互作用而触发Alfven波和快磁声波的振荡模型,用来解释太阳短厘米波爆发中相关性很强的双重准周期脉动的起因和观测特征,并由此计算出爆发源区的平均物理参量T,N,B值。     

Statistical properties of dissipation bursts within turbulence: Solar flares and geomagnetic activity

We investigate some statistical properties of the solar soft X-ray flux and of the Auroral Electrojet (AE) index. For both these signals, the probability density functions (PDFs) of normalized differences are shown to display wide, non-Gaussian tails. The shape of the PDFs is nearly unchanged as the timelag, used to calculate differences, varies. Moreover, the two time series are characterized by a power-law distribution for waiting times between successive bursts and by a clear departure from an hypothesis of locally Poisson statistics. A similar behavior is found in a shell model of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence.     

Hard X-ray bursts detected by the IBIS telescope onboard the INTEGRAL observatory in 2003–2004

All of the observations performed with the IBIS telescope onboard the INTEGRAL observatory during the first one and a half years of its in-orbit operation (from February 10, 2003, through July 2, 2004) have been analyzed to find X-ray bursts. The time history of the IBIS/ISGRI total count rate in the energy range 15–25 keV revealed 1077 bursts of durations from ～5 to ～500 s with a high statistical significance (over the entire period of observations, only one event could be detected by chance with a probability of 20%). A part from the events associated with cosmic gamma-ray bursts (detected in the field of view or passed through the IBIS shield), solar flares, and activity of the soft gamma repeater SGR 1806-20, we were able to localize 105 bursts and, with one exception, to identify them with previously known persistent or transient X-ray sources (96 were identified with known X-ray bursters). In one case, the burst source was a new burster in a low state that received the name IGR J17364-2711. Basic parameters of the localized bursts and their identifications are presented in the catalog of bursts. Curiously enough, 61 bursts were detected from one X-ray burster, GX 354-0. The statistical distributions of bursts in duration, maximum flux, and recurrence time have been analyzed for this source. Some of the bursts observed with the IBIS/ISGRI telescope were also detected by the JEM-X telescope onboard the INTEGRAL observatory in the standard X-ray energy range 3–20 keV.     

X-Ray bursts from solar flares behind the limb

From the UCSD OSO-7 X-ray experiment data, we have identified 54 X-ray bursts with 5.1–6.6 keV flux greater than 10³ photon cm^?2 keV^?1 which were not accompanied by visible Hα flare on the solar disk. By studying OSO-5 X-ray spectroheliograms, Hα activity at the limb and the emergence and disappearance of sunspot groups at the limb, we found 17 active centers as likely seats of the X-ray bursts beyond the limb. We present the analysis of 37 X-ray bursts and their physical parameters. We compare our results with those published by Datlowe et al. (1974a, b) for disk events. The distributions of maximum temperature, maximum emission measure, and characteristic cooling time of the over-the-limb events do not significantly differ from those of disk events. We show that of conduction and radiation, the former is the dominant cooling mechanism for the hot flare plasma. Since the disk and over-the-limb bursts are similar, we conclude that the scale height for X-ray emission in the 5–10 keV range is large and is consistent with that of Catalano and Van Allen (1973), 11000 km, for primarily 1–3 keV emission. Twenty-five or about 2/3 of the over-the-limb events had a non-thermal component. The distribution of peak 20 keV flux is not significantly different from that of disk events. However, the spectral index at the time of maximum flux is significantly different for events over the limb and for events near the center of the disk; the spectral index for over-the-limb events is larger by about δγ = 3/4. If hard X-ray emission came only from localized sources low in the chromosphere we would expect that hard X-ray emission, would be occulted over the limb; on the contrary, the observation show that the fraction of soft X-ray bursts which have a nonthermal component is the same on and off of the disk. Thus hard X-ray emission over extended regions is indicated.     

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.     

Comparison of mm-wave and X-ray diagnostics of flare plasma

To compare mm-wave and X-ray diagnostics of solar flare plasma, five flares observed in 1980–1991 in Metsähovi at 22 and 37 GHz and with GOES, SMM, and GRO are studied. The first impulsive peak of the mm-wave bursts under investigation coincides in time with hard X-ray emission. The second gradual component in mm-wave emission coincides with the maximum of the soft X-ray emission measure. The bremsstrahlung mm-wave radiation from hot chromospheric plasma and gyrosynchrotron radiation driven by common population of superthermal electrons are calculated. It is shown that for mm-wave events with the first peak intensity 100 s.f.u., the thermal bremsstrahlung is more important than the gyrosynchrotron emission. The total energy of fast electrons deduced from the first peak of mm-wave bursts is one to two orders of magnitude less than that determined from the hard X-ray emission in the approximation of a thick-target nonthermal model. That can testify in favour of the hybrid thermal/nonthermal model proposed by Holman and Benka (1992). The emission measure and the energy of evaporated plasma using both mm-wave and soft X-ray data are also determined. For events investigated here the energy of evaporated chromospheric plasma is larger than the total energy of fast electron beams. We have concluded that, for evaporation, additional energy release in the chromosphere is needed. The possibility of such energy release in the framework of an advanced circuit model for solar flares is discussed.     

Initial Results of the Ichon Solar Radio Spectrograph

A new solar radio spectrograph to observe solar radio bursts has been installed at the Ichon branch of the Radio Research Laboratory, Ministry of Information and Communication, Korea. The spectrograph consists of three different antennas to sweep a wide band of frequencies in the range of 30 MHz ∼ 2500 MHz. Its daily operation is fully automated and typical examples of solar radio bursts have been successfully observed. In this paper we describe briefly its hardware and data processing methods. Then we present coronal shock speeds estimated for 34 type II bursts from May 1998 to November 2000 and compare them with those from other observatories. We also present the close relationship between onset time of type II bursts and X-ray flares as well as their associations with coronal mass ejections.     

Prolonged nonthermal emission from solar flares and the Neupert effect

We analyze the observations of the hard (ACS SPI, > 150 keV) and soft (GOES, 1–8 Å) X-ray emissions and the microwave (15.5 GHz) emission in the solar flares on September 7, 2005 and December 6 and 13, 2006. The time profiles of the nonthermal emission from these flares had a complex structure, suggesting that active processes in the flare region continued for a long time (more than an hour). We have verified the linear relationship between the nonthermal flux and the time derivative of the soft X-ray flux (the Neupert effect) in the events under consideration. In the first two cases, the Neupert effect held at the time of the most intense nonthermal emission peak, but not at the decay phase of the soft X-ray emission, when the intensity of the nonthermal emission was much higher than the background values. At the same time, the hard X-ray emission was suppressed compared to the main peak, while the microwave emission remained approximately at the same level. In the December 13, 2006 event, the prolonged hard X-ray emission was difficult to observe due to the fast arrival of solar protons, but the Neupert effect did not hold for its main peak either. At comparable intensities of the microwave emission on December 6 and 13, the intensity of the hard X-ray emission on December 13 at the time of the main peak was suppressed approximately by an order of magnitude. These observational facts are indicative of several particle acceleration and interaction episodes under various physical conditions during one flare. When the Neupert effect did not hold, the interaction of electrons took place mainly in a low-density medium. An effective escape of accelerated particles into interplanetary space rather than their precipitation into dense layers of the solar atmosphere may take place precisely at this time.     

Solar soft X-rays and solar activity

Flare-associated soft X-ray bursts (8–12 Å) are examined for 283 events observed by OSO-III. These bursts are shown to be predominantly thermal in nature. Their time-profiles are roughly similar to those of the associated H flares, although the X-ray burst begins about two minutes earlier, on the average. The strength of the soft X-ray burst is directly related to the area and brilliance of the flare, the age and flare-richness of the associated plage, and the general level of solar activity at the time of the burst. The peak enhancements in the soft X-ray and H emission rates during flares are of the same order of magnitude, as are the total flare energies radiated at these wavelengths. We estimate that soft X-radiation accounts for up to 10% of a flare's total electromagnetic emission.NRC/NAS Resident Research Associate.