scholarly journals Difference of source regions between fast and slow coronal mass ejections

Author(s):  
B. Filippov

Abstract Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are tightly related to filament eruptions and usually are their continuation in the upper solar corona. It is common practice to divide all observed CMEs into fast and slow ones. Fast CMEs usually follow eruptive events in active regions near big sunspot groups and associated with major solar flares. Slow CMEs are more related to eruptions of quiescent prominences located far from active regions. We analyse 10 eruptive events with particular attention to the events on 2013 September 29 and on 2016 January 26, one of which was associated with a fast CME, while another was followed by a slow CME. We estimated the initial store of free magnetic energy in the two regions and show the resemblance of pre-eruptive situations. The difference of late behaviour of the two eruptive prominences is a consequence of the different structure of magnetic field above the filaments. We estimated this structure on the basis of potential magnetic field calculations. Analysis of other eight events confirmed that all fast CMEs originate in regions with rapidly changing with height value and direction of coronal magnetic field.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Vilmer ◽  
Sophie Musset

<p>Efficient electron (and ion) acceleration is produced in association with solar flares. Energetic particles play a major role in the active Sun since they contain a large amount of the magnetic energy released during flares. Energetic electrons (and ions) interact with the solar atmosphere and produce high-energy X-rays and γ-rays. Energetic electrons also produce radio emission in a large frequency band through gyrosynchrotron emission processes in the magnetic fields of flaring active regions and conversion of plasma waves when e.g. propagating to the high corona towards the interplanetary medium. It is currently admitted that solar flares are powered by magnetic energy previously stored in the coronal magnetic field and that magnetic energy release is likely to occur on coronal currents sheets along regions of strong gradient of magnetic connectivity. However, understanding the connection between particle acceleration processes and the topology of the complex magnetic structures present in the corona is still a challenging issue. In this talk, we shall review some recent results derived from X-ray and radio imaging spectroscopy of solar flares bringing some new observational constraints on the localization of HXR/radio sources with respect to current sheets, termination shocks in the corona derived from EUV observations.</p>


Solar Physics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 296 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Stansby ◽  
Lucie M. Green ◽  
Lidia van Driel-Gesztelyi ◽  
Timothy S. Horbury

AbstractBoth coronal holes and active regions are source regions of the solar wind. The distribution of these coronal structures across both space and time is well known, but it is unclear how much each source contributes to the solar wind. In this study we use photospheric magnetic field maps observed over the past four solar cycles to estimate what fraction of magnetic open solar flux is rooted in active regions, a proxy for the fraction of all solar wind originating in active regions. We find that the fractional contribution of active regions to the solar wind varies between 30% to 80% at any one time during solar maximum and is negligible at solar minimum, showing a strong correlation with sunspot number. While active regions are typically confined to latitudes ±30∘ in the corona, the solar wind they produce can reach latitudes up to ±60∘. Their fractional contribution to the solar wind also correlates with coronal mass ejection rate, and is highly variable, changing by ±20% on monthly timescales within individual solar maxima. We speculate that these variations could be driven by coronal mass ejections causing reconfigurations of the coronal magnetic field on sub-monthly timescales.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory Fleishman ◽  
Dale Gary ◽  
Bin Chen ◽  
Sijie Yu ◽  
Natsuha Kuroda ◽  
...  

<p>Magnetic reconnection plays a central role in highly magnetized plasma, for example, in solar corona. Release of magnetic energy due to reconnection is believed to drive such transient phenomena as solar flares, eruptions, and jets. This energy release should be associated with a decrease of the coronal magnetic field. Quantitative measurements of the evolving magnetic field strength in the corona are required to find out where exactly and with what rate this decrease takes place. The only available methodology capable of providing such measurements employs microwave imaging spectroscopy of gyrosynchrotron emission from nonthermal electrons accelerated in flares. Here, we report microwave observations of a solar flare, showing spatial and temporal changes in the coronal magnetic field at the cusp region; well below the nominal reconnection X point. The field decays at a rate of ~5 Gauss per second for 2 minutes. This fast rate of decay implies a highly enhanced, turbulent magnetic diffusivity and sufficiently strong electric field to account for the particle acceleration that produces the microwave emission. Moreover, spatially resolved maps of the nonthermal and thermal electron densities derived from the same microwave spectroscopy data set allow us to detect the very acceleration site located within the cusp region. The nonthermal number density is extremely high, while the thermal one is undetectably low in this region indicative of a bulk acceleration process exactly where the magnetic field displays the fast decay. The decrease in stored magnetic energy is sufficient to power the solar flare, including the associated eruption, particle acceleration, and plasma heating. We discuss implications of these findings for understanding particle acceleration in solar flares and in a broader space plasma context.</p>


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (S328) ◽  
pp. 127-129
Author(s):  
André Chicrala ◽  
Renato Sergio Dallaqua ◽  
Luis Eduardo Antunes Vieira ◽  
Alisson Dal Lago ◽  
Jenny Marcela Rodríguez Gómez ◽  
...  

AbstractThe behavior of Active Regions (ARs) is directly related to the occurrence of some remarkable phenomena in the Sun such as solar flares or coronal mass ejections (CME). In this sense, changes in the magnetic field of the region can be used to uncover other relevant features like the evolution of the ARs magnetic structure and the plasma flow related to it. In this work we describe the evolution of the magnetic structure of the active region AR NOAA12443 observed from 2015/10/30 to 2015/11/10, which may be associated with several X-ray flares of classes C and M. The analysis is based on observations of the solar surface and atmosphere provided by HMI and AIA instruments on board of the SDO spacecraft. In order to investigate the magnetic energy buildup and release of the ARs, we shall employ potential and linear force free extrapolations based on the solar surface magnetic field distribution and the photospheric velocity fields.


1994 ◽  
Vol 144 ◽  
pp. 21-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. B. Gelfreikh

AbstractA review of methods of measuring magnetic fields in the solar corona using spectral-polarization observations at microwaves with high spatial resolution is presented. The methods are based on the theory of thermal bremsstrahlung, thermal cyclotron emission, propagation of radio waves in quasi-transverse magnetic field and Faraday rotation of the plane of polarization. The most explicit program of measurements of magnetic fields in the atmosphere of solar active regions has been carried out using radio observations performed on the large reflector radio telescope of the Russian Academy of Sciences — RATAN-600. This proved possible due to good wavelength coverage, multichannel spectrographs observations and high sensitivity to polarization of the instrument. Besides direct measurements of the strength of the magnetic fields in some cases the peculiar parameters of radio sources, such as very steep spectra and high brightness temperatures provide some information on a very complicated local structure of the coronal magnetic field. Of special interest are the results found from combined RATAN-600 and large antennas of aperture synthesis (VLA and WSRT), the latter giving more detailed information on twodimensional structure of radio sources. The bulk of the data obtained allows us to investigate themagnetospheresof the solar active regions as the space in the solar corona where the structures and physical processes are controlled both by the photospheric/underphotospheric currents and surrounding “quiet” corona.


2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (S320) ◽  
pp. 167-174
Author(s):  
M. S. Wheatland ◽  
S. A. Gilchrist

AbstractWe review nonlinear force-free field (NLFFF) modeling of magnetic fields in active regions. The NLFFF model (in which the electric current density is parallel to the magnetic field) is often adopted to describe the coronal magnetic field, and numerical solutions to the model are constructed based on photospheric vector magnetogram boundary data. Comparative tests of NLFFF codes on sets of boundary data have revealed significant problems, in particular associated with the inconsistency of the model and the data. Nevertheless NLFFF modeling is often applied, in particular to flare-productive active regions. We examine the results, and discuss their reliability.


2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (S300) ◽  
pp. 209-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucie M. Green ◽  
Bernhard Kliem

AbstractUnderstanding the magnetic configuration of the source regions of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) is vital in order to determine the trigger and driver of these events. Observations of four CME productive active regions are presented here, which indicate that the pre-eruption magnetic configuration is that of a magnetic flux rope. The flux ropes are formed in the solar atmosphere by the process known as flux cancellation and are stable for several hours before the eruption. The observations also indicate that the magnetic structure that erupts is not the entire flux rope as initially formed, raising the question of whether the flux rope is able to undergo a partial eruption or whether it undergoes a transition in specific flux rope configuration shortly before the CME.


A summary is given on recent results on the physics of the quiet solar atmosphere, and active regions. This includes: solar rotation, velocity fields and waves, magnetic field concentration, the transition region, coronal magnetic field structure, and prominences.


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