Solar wind origins in coronal holes and in the quiet Sun

Coronal hole (CH) and the quiet Sun (QS) are considered to account for sources of fast and slow solar wind streams, respectively. The differences between the solar wind streams flowing out from the CH and the QS are thought to be related with different plasma generation and acceleration mechanisms in the respective source regions. Here we review recent studies on the solar wind origin in the CH and the QS, compare the possible flow geometries and magnetic structures in these two kinds of solar regions, and summarize the physics associated with two different origin scenarios.     

Reorganization of the solar corona following a C4.7 flare

Yohkoh X-ray images, multifrequency two-dimentional observations of the Nancay Radioheliograph, Kitt Peak and Mees magnetograms provide a unique set of data with which to study a C4.7 long-duration flare that was observed close to the equator (S07, W11) on 25 Oct. 1994 at 09:49 UT. Linear force-free field extrapolations indicate a very high degree of non-potentiality in the active region. The X-ray flare started with the expansion of spectacular twisted loops. Fifteen minutes after the flare onset sporadic radio (type III) bursts were observed spreading over an area of almost 1/3 of the solar disc and two remote X-ray brightenings appeared over quiet regions of opposite magnetic polarity located in on opposite hemispheres of the Sun. In the close vicinity of these remote brightenings two coronal holes formed. The timing and location of these events combined with the overall magnetic configuration provide evidence for a large-scale magnetic reconnection occurring between the expanding twisted loops and the overlying huge loops which inter-connect quiet solar regions.     

Relationships of a growing magnetic flux region to flares

Some sites for solar flares are known to develop where new magnetic flux emerges and becomes abutted against opposite polarity pre-existing magnetic flux (review by Galzauskas/1/). We have identified and analyzed the evolution of such flare sites at the boundaries of a major new and growing magnetic flux region within a complex of active regions, Hale No. 16918. This analysis was done as a part of a continuing study of the circumstances associated with flares in Hale Region 16918, which was designated as an FBS target during the interval 18 – 23 June 1980. We studied the initiation and development of both major and minor flares in Hα images in relation to the identified potential flare sites at the boundaries of the growing flux region and to the general development of the new flux. This study lead to our recognition of a spectrum of possible relationships of growing flux regions to flares as follows: (1) intimate interaction with adjacent old flux — flare sites centered at new/old flux boundary, (2) forced or “intimidated” interaction in which new flux pushes old field having lower flux density towards a neighboring old polarity inversion line where a flare then takes place, (3) “influential” interaction — magnetic lines of force over an old polarity inversion line, typically containing a filament, reconnect to the new emerging flux; a flare occurs with erupting filament when the magnetic field overlying the filament becomes too weak to prevent its eruption, (4) inconsequential interaction — new flux region is too small or has wrong orientation for creating flare conditions, (5) incidental — flare occurs without any significant relationship to new flux regions.     

Flare build-up study — Homologous flares group — Part I

According to the definition of the homology (optical) kept in reference, the homologous flares (HFl) may be observed wherever flares occur. The supposed supplementary preflaring conditions to have HFl may be either that the preflaring conditions have not been destroyed by the first flare (and then what mechanism has stopped the first and triggered the second ?) or that the preflaring conditions have been destroyed and rebuilt (and then, how ?). The analysis of data related to some selected active regions AR by the members of the working group, and the earlier works on HFl, may be used simultaneously to investigate the differences between one set of HFl and the others, the location of their sites and the evolution of HFl productive AR. This study brings the appearance of new footpoints from one flare to the following, the behaviour of cool arches (surging arches) leading to information on the changes of the magnetic configuration, and to peculiar characteristics of HFl, oif 2nd, 3rd in the time order concerning the chromospheric transition zone or coronal regions. The time delay between two consecutive homologous flares appears very quickly as an essential parameter to study homology. It was found that every set of flares (same type of site) is able to produce “rafales” of homologous flares, i.e. two, three, four, oir more flares with Δt in the range of one hour or less. The observations show no great chantes in macroscopic photospheric patterns (B, V) during this H flaring period. They lead to compare their temporal variation curves of flare brightness. A quantitative brightness parameter of homology relation has been defined. Some scale changes have also been detected in the dynamic spectrum of the site, and it is in good agreement with a very interesting theoretical suggestion made by P. Sturrock to produce such “rafales”. It may be shown that the closely consecutive time-homologous flares (CCHF) or “rafales” represent a good tool to analyse the critical conditions related to the origin and the amount of energy, mechanism of storage and release, necessary and, perhaps, sufficient conditions. New statistical results, applied to the different selected homologous flare active regions are presented and show the existence in homologous flaring areas of a “pivot” of previous filaments interpreted as a signature of an anomaly in the Solar rotation.     

Flare buildup in X-rays,UV, microwaves and white light

Coordinated observations using space and ground-based instruments were made of active region complex #2522/2530, 24–30 June, 1980. The 10 largest flares from these regions were of importance M1-M6 in X-rays, and all were observed from satellites, except for one observed from a balloon. Several kinds of buildup signature have been found in the tens of minutes before these flares. Among these signatures are the following: 1) Relative faintness in X-ray lines of the pre-flare pixels, 2) X-ray (5–15 keV) “flashes” at points displaced by 1′–2′ from the flare site, 3) Rising filaments seen in Hα and Ultraviolet 4) Microwave intensification, polarization increase and polarization flip 5) Coronal disturbances above limb flares at or before the impulsive phase.     

Flux emergence,flux imbalance,magnetic free energy and solar flares

Emergence of complex magnetic flux in the solar active regions lead to several observational effects such as a change in sunspot area and flux embalance in photospheric magnetograms. The flux emergence also results in twisted magnetic field lines that add to free energy content. The magnetic field configuration of these active regions relax to near potential-field configuration after energy release through solar flares and coronal mass ejections. In this paper, we study the relation of flare productivity of active regions with their evolution of magnetic flux emergence, flux imbalance and free energy content. We use the sunspot area and number for flux emergence study as they contain most of the concentrated magnetic flux in the active region. The magnetic flux imbalance and the free energy are estimated using the HMI/SDO magnetograms and Virial theorem method. We find that the active regions that undergo large changes in sunspot area are most flare productive. The active regions become flary when the free energy content exceeds 50% of the total energy. Although, the flary active regions show magnetic flux imbalance, it is hard to predict flare activity based on this parameter alone.     

Where will efficient energy release occur in 3-D magnetic configurations?

The energy needed to power flares is thought to be stored in the coronal magnetic field. However, the energy release is efficient only at very small scales. Magnetic configurations with a complex topology, i.e. with separatrices, are the most obvious configurations where current sheets can form, and then, reconnection can efficiently occur. This has been confirmed for several flares computing the coronal field and comparing the locations of the flare loops and ribbons to the deduced 3-D magnetic topology. However, this view is too restrictive taking into account the variety of observed solar flaring configurations. Indeed, “Quasi-Separatrix Layers” (QSLs), which are regions where there is a drastic change in field-line linkage, generalize the definition of separatrices. They let us understand where reconnection occurs in a broader variety of flares than separatrices do. The strongest electric field and current are generated at, or close to where the QSLs are thinnest. This defines the region where particle acceleration can efficiently occur. A new feature of 3-D reconnection is the natural presence of fast field-line slippage along the QSLs, a process called “slip-running reconnection”. This is a plausible origin for the motions of the X-ray sources along flare ribbons.     

White-light movies of the solar photosphere from the soup instrument on spacelab 2

We present initial results on solar granulation, pores and sunspots from the white-light films obtained by the Solar Optical Universal Polarimeter (SOUP) instrument on Spacelab 2. SOUP contains a 30-cm Cassegrain telescope, an active secondary mirror for image stabilization, and a white-light optical system with 35-mm film and video cameras. Outputs from the fine guidance servo provided engineering data on the performance of the ESA Instrument Pointing System (IPS). Several hours of movies were taken at various disk and limb positions in quiet and active regions. The images are diffraction-limited at 0.5 arc second resolution and are, of course, free of atmospheric seeing and distortion. Properties of the granulation in magnetic and non-magnetic regions are compared and are found to differ significantly in size, rate of intensity variation, and lifetime. In quiet sun on the order of fifty percent of the area has at least one “exploding granule” occurring in it during a 25 minute period. Local correlation tracking has detected several types of transverse flows, including systematic outflow from the penumbral boundary of a spot, motion of penumbral filaments, and cellular flow patterns of supergranular and mesogranular size. Feature tracking has shown that in quiet sun the average granule fragment has a velocity of about one kilometer per second.     

Magnetic energy storage and the thermal versus non-thermal hard X-ray hypotheses

We demonstrate by using elementary electromagnetic theory that flare mechanisms that require pre-flare energy storage, that is inductive energy storage, are incapable of accelerating sufficient electrons to satisfy the “non-thermal” hard X-ray hypothesis and are therefore “thermal” flare mechanisms within the context of the “thermal hypothesis”.     

Coronal spectroscopy: Probing sources of slow solar wind in active regions,and the early phases of solar flares

Coronal spectroscopy has pushed forward the understanding of physical processes in all phenomena on the Sun. In this review we concentrate specifically on plasma parameters measured in sources of the slow solar wind in active regions and the early phases of solar flares. These topics are a key part of the science goals of the Solar Orbiter mission (Müller et al., 2020) which has been designed to probe what drives the solar wind and solar transients that fill the heliosphere.Active regions, outside of flaring, have general characteristics that include closed loops showing red-shifted (down-flowing plasma), and the edges of the active regions showing blue-shifted (upflowing plasma). Constraining and understanding the evolution, behaviour and cause of the flows has been developed in the past years and are summarised. Of particular importance is the upflowing plasma which, in some cases, can contribute to the slow solar wind, and this review concentrates on recent results on this topic.The early phases of solar flares and their energy sources are not yet fully understood. For decades, there has been a huge interest in pin-pointing the trigger of a solar flare. Coronal spectroscopy has revealed small-scale dynamics that occurs tens of minutes before the flare begins. The understanding of the trigger is key to improving flare predictions in the future, as well as understanding the physical processes.Finally we look to the future of coronal spectroscopy, with new instruments and methodologies being developed that build on the current knowledge, and will improve significantly our physical understanding of processes at all scales on the Sun.     

Structure of the Program of Short-term Prediction of Powerful Solar Flares

Input data of the system are two-dimensional images and one-dimensional distributions of total and polarized solar emission at 5.2 cm wavelength obtained with SSRT. Together with photoheliograms, magnetograms, Hα-filtergrams and characteristics of active regions received from other sources, they form the initial database. The first stage includes superimposing the images, identifying microwave sources with active regions, assigning NOAA numbers to the sources, and determining for each active region the heliolatitude, extent, and inclination angle of the group's axis to the equator. These data are used to calculate the boundaries of longitude zones for each active region. A next stage involves determining the brightness temperatures of microwave sources less than the polarization distribution, the degree of polarization, and microwave emission flux, as well as calculating the parameters of microwave sources. Each parameter is assigned its own value of the weight factor, and the sum of values is used to draw the conclusion about the flare occurrence probability in each active region and on the Sun in general.      

Statistical study of twist values of transequatorial loops and the relationship with flares

In this paper, the twist values of ‘S’-shape transequatorial loops (TLs) from 1991 to 2001 are calculated, GOES soft X-ray flares dataset of the active regions connected by these TLs are investigated. The result shows the twist value of the TLs has a weak relation with the flare flux. There is no clear correlation between the twist value and the distance between the footpoint of TLs and location of flare in the corresponding active regions.     

Actors of the main activity in large complex centres during the 23 solar cycle maximum

During the maximum of Solar Cycle 23, large active regions had a long life, spanning several solar rotations, and produced large numbers of X-class flares and CMEs, some of them associated to magnetic clouds (MCs). This is the case for the Halloween active regions in 2003. The most geoeffective MC of the cycle (Dst = −457) had its source during the disk passage of one of these active regions (NOAA 10501) on 18 November 2003. Such an activity was presumably due to continuous emerging magnetic flux that was observed during this passage. Moreover, the region exhibited a complex topology with multiple domains of different magnetic helicities. The complexity was observed to reach such unprecedented levels that a detailed multi-wavelength analysis is necessary to precisely identify the solar sources of CMEs and MCs. Magnetic clouds are identified using in situ measurements and interplanetary scintillation (IPS) data. Results from these two different sets of data are also compared.     

Energy spectra of high energy electrons and hard X-rays as observed onboard the space probe Venera 11 during the solar flare event of April 13 1979

The event was observed onboard the space probe Venera 11 at a heliolongitude close to 57°. Electron spectra in the energy range from 60 to 2100 keV are determined and compared with X ray spectra. As a result it was found that conditions of the “thin target” model were realized in the April 13, 1979 flare. Estimates of the total number of accelerated electrons and the energy of the flare are presented.     

Loop top nonthermal emission sources associated with an over-the-limb flare observed with NoRH and RHESSI

We studied the M3.7 class flare which occurred on 2005 July 27, in the active region NOAA 10792. This flare is an over-the-limb flare, and the footpoints are entirely occulted by the solar disk. The microwave and the hard X-ray images obtained with the Nobeyama Radioheliograph and the RHESSI satellite, respectively, clearly showed emission sources above the post-flare loop system. We examined the emission sources in detail spatially, temporally, and spectroscopically. As a result, one of the hard X-ray emission sources and the microwave emission source are nonthermal.     

Collaborative VLA,SOHO and RHESSI observations of evolving sources of energy release in the corona above active regions

Very Large Array (VLA) observations at 20 and 91 cm wavelength are compared with data from the SOHO (EIT and MDI) and RHESSI solar missions to investigate the evolution of decimetric Type I noise storms and Type III bursts and related magnetic activity in the photosphere and corona. The combined data sets provide clues about the mechanisms that initiate and sustain the decimetric bursts and about interactions between thermal and nonthermal plasmas at different locations in the solar atmosphere. On one day, frequent, low-level hard X-ray flaring observed by RHESSI appears to have had no clear affect on the evolution of two closely-spaced Type I noise storm sources lying above the target active region. EIT images however, indicate nearly continuous restructuring of the underlying EUV loops which, through accompanying low-level magnetic reconnection, might give rise to nonthermal particles and plasma turbulence that sustain the long-lasting Type I burst emission. On another day, the onset of an impulsive hard X-ray burst and subsequent decimetric burst emission followed the gradual displacement and coalescence of a small patch of magnetic magnetic polarity with a pre-existing area of mixed magnetic polarity. The time delay of the impulsive 20 and 91 cm bursts by up to 20 min suggests that these events were unlikely to represent the main sites of flare electron acceleration, but instead are related to the rearrangement of the coronal magnetic field after the main flare at lower altitude. Although the X-ray flare is associated with the decimetric burst, the brightness and structure of a long-lasting Type I noise storm from the same region was not affected by the flare. This suggests that the reconfiguration of the coronal magnetic fields and the subsequent energy release that gave rise to the impulsive burst emission did not significantly perturb that part of the corona where the noise storm emission was located.     

Magnetic reconnection in solar flares and corresponding radio bursts

The 2D MHD model of the flare magnetic reconnection shows that a reconnection activity, changes of the magnetic field topology and generation of waves are connected. It is found that after the phase of a quasi-stationary reconnection in the extended current sheet above the flare arcade the tearing mode instability produces the plasmoids which then can interact and generate MHD waves. Results of particle-in-cell simulations of the tearing processes, which accelerate electrons, are mentioned. Then all these processes are discussed from the point of view of possible radio emissions. While shocks can contribute to the type II radio burst, the superthermal electrons trapped in plasmoids can generate so called drifting pulsating structures. Furthermore, regions with the MHD turbulence may manifest themselves as the lace or dm-spike bursts.     

Entry of dust particles into planetary magnetospheres

While interplanetary dust constitutes a primary source of cosmic particulate matter in planetary magnetospheres, the debris produced by its impact with small satellites and ring material provides an important secondary source. Internal processes, such as volcanic activity, particularly in the smaller satellites, could result in a third source. In the case of the terrestrial magnetosphere there are also artificial (internal) sources: 1–10μ sized A?₂O₃ particles injected by solid rocket mortar burns between near earth and geosynchronous orbit constitute one such source, while the fragments of larger bodies (artificial satellites) due to explosions (e.g., “killer satellites”) and collisions constitute another. Finally, if we include the purely induced cometary magnetosphere among planetary magnetospheres, the injection of cometary dust into it due to entrainment by the outflowing gases constitutes another source.As a result of being immersed in a radiative and plasma environment these dust grains get electrically charged up to some potential (positive or negative). Particularly in those regions where the magnetospheric plasma is hot and dense and their own spatial density is low, the dust grains could get charged to numerically large negative potentials.While this charging may have physical consequences for the larger grains, such as electrostatic erosion (“chipping”) and disruption, it also can effect the dynamics of the smaller grains. Indeed, the small but finite capacitance of these grains, which leads to a phase lag in the gyrophase oscillation of the grain potential, could even lead to the permanent magneto-gravitational capture of interplanetary grains within planetary magnetospheres in certain situations. Here we will review the sources of dust in planetary magnetospheres and discuss their physics and their dynamics under the combined action of both planetary gravitational and magnetospheric electromagnetic forces.     

CME productivity associated with Solar Flare peak X-ray emission flux

It is often noticed that the occurrence rate of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) increases with increase in flare duration where peak flux too increase. However, there is no complete association between the duration and peak flux. Distinct characteristics have been reported for active regions (ARs) where flares and CMEs occur in contrast to ARs where flares alone occur. It is observed that peak flux of flares is higher when associated with CMEs compared to peak flux of flares with which CMEs are not associated. In other words, it is likely that flare duration and peak flux are independently affected by distinct active region dynamics. Hence, we examine the relative ability of flare duration and peak flux in enhancing the CME productivity. We report that CME productivity is distinctly higher in association with the enhancement of flare peak flux in comparison to corresponding enhancement of flare duration.     

UV spectra of late-type stars and of representative solar features

We compare low-resolution short-wavelength IUE spectra of solar-type stars with high-resolution spatially-resolved SKYLAB spectra of individual solar features (quiet region, plage, flare). The comparison is used to obtain insights into the magnetic activity of stars.