Automatic Solar Flare Tracking Using Image-Processing Techniques

Measurement of the evolution properties of solar flares through their complete cyclic development is crucial in the studies of Solar Physics. From the analysis of solar H images, we used Support Vector Machines (SVMs) to automatically detect flares and applied image segmentation techniques to compute their properties. We also present a solution for automatically tracking the apparent separation motion of two-ribbon flares and measuring their moving direction and speed in the magnetic fields. From these measurements, with certain assumptions, we inferred the reconnection of the electric field as a measure of the rate of the magnetic reconnection in the corona. The automatic procedure is a valuable tool for real-time monitoring of flare evolution.