Observations of conduction driven evaporation in the early rise phase of solar flares

<p><b>Context:</b> The classical flare picture features a beam of electrons, which were accelerated in a site in the corona, hitting the chromosphere. The electrons are stopped in the dense chromospheric plasma, emitting bremsstrahlung in hard X-rays. The ambient material is heated by the deposited energy and expands into the magnetic flare loops, a process termed chromospheric evaporation. In this view hard X-ray emission from the chromosphere is succeeded by soft-X-ray emission from the hot plasma in the flare loop, the soft X-ray emission being a direct consequence of the impact of the non-thermal particle beam. However, observations of events exist in which a pronounced increase in soft X-ray emission is observed minutes before the onset of the hard X-ray emission. Such pre-flare emission clearly contradicts the classical flare picture.</p> <p><b>Aims:</b> For the first time, the pre-flare phase of such solar flares is studied in detail. The aim is to understand the early rise phase of these events. We want to explain the time evolution of the observed emission by means of alternative energy transport mechanisms such as heat conduction.</p> <p><b>Methods:</b> RHESSI events displaying pronounced pre-flare emission were analyzed in imaging and spectroscopy. The time evolution of images and full sun spectra was investigated and compared to the theoretical expectations from conduction driven chromospheric evaporation. Results. The pre-flare phase is characterized by purely thermal emission from a coronal source with increasing emission measure and density. After this earliest phase, a small non-thermal tail to higher energies appears in the spectra, becoming more and more pronounced. However, images still only display one X-ray source, implying that this non-thermal emission is coronal. The increase of emission measure and density indicates that material is added to the coronal region. The most plausible origin is evaporated material from the chromosphere. Energy provided by a heat flux is capable of driving chromospheric evaporation. We show that the often used classical Spitzer treatment of the conductive flux is not applicable. The conductive flux is saturated. During the preflare-phase, the temperature of the coronal source remains constant or increases. Continuous heating in the corona is necessary to explain this observation.</p> <p><b>Conclusions:</b> The observations of the pre-flare phase of four solar flares are consistent with chromospheric evaporation driven by a saturated heat flux. Additionally, continuous heating in the corona is necessary to sustain the observed temperature.</p&gt

Flows in the solar atmosphere due to the eruptions on the 15th July, 2002

<p>Which kind of flows are present during flares? Are they compatible with the present understanding of energy release and which model best describes the observations? We analyze successive flare events in order to answer these questions. The flares were observed in the magnetically complex NOAA active region (AR) 10030 on 15 July 2002. One of them is of GOES X-class. The description of these flares and how they relate to the break-out model is presented in Gary & Moore (2004). The Coronal Diagnostic Spectrometer on board SOHO observed this active region for around 14 h. The observed emission lines provided data from the transition region to the corona with a field of view covering more than half of the active region. In this paper we analyse the spatially resolved flows seen in the atmosphere from the preflare to the flare stages. We find evidence for evaporation occurring before the impulsive phase. During the main phase, the ongoing magnetic reconnection is demonstrated by upflows located at the edges of the flare loops (while downflows are found in the flare loops themselves). We also report the impact of a filament eruption on the atmosphere, with flows up to 300 km s<sup>-1</sup> observed at transition-region temperatures in regions well away from the location of the pre-eruptive filament. Our results are consistent with the predictions of the break out model before the impulsive phase of the flare; while, as the flare progresses, the directions of the flows are consistent with flare models invoking evaporation followed by cooling and downward plasma motions in the flare loops.</p&gt

Temperature Anisotropy in a Shocked Plasma: Mirror-Mode Instabilities in the Heliosheath

We show that temperature anisotropies induced at a shock can account for interplanetary and planetary bow shock observations. Shocked plasma with enhanced plasma beta is preferentially unstable to the mirror mode instability downstream of a quasi-perpendicular shock and to the firehose instability downstream of a quasi-parallel shock, consistent with magnetic fluctuations observed downstream of a large variety of shocks. Our theoretical analysis of the solar wind termination shock suggests that the magnetic holes observed by Voyager 1 in the heliosheath are produced by the mirror mode instability. The results are also of astrophysical interest, providing an energy source for plasma heating.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

Multi-wavelength analysis of high energy electrons in solar flares: a case study of August 20, 2002 flare

A multi-wavelength spatial and temporal analysis of solar high energy electrons is conducted using the August 20, 2002 flare of an unusually flat (gamma=1.8) hard X-ray spectrum. The flare is studied using RHESSI, Halpha, radio, TRACE, and MDI observations with advanced methods and techniques never previously applied in the solar flare context. A new method to account for X-ray Compton backscattering in the photosphere (photospheric albedo) has been used to deduce the primary X-ray flare spectra. The mean electron flux distribution has been analysed using both forward fitting and model independent inversion methods of spectral analysis. We show that the contribution of the photospheric albedo to the photon spectrum modifies the calculated mean electron flux distribution, mainly at energies below 100 keV. The positions of the Halpha emission and hard X-ray sources with respect to the current-free extrapolation of the MDI photospheric magnetic field and the characteristics of the radio emission provide evidence of the closed geometry of the magnetic field structure and the flare process in low altitude magnetic loops. In agreement with the predictions of some solar flare models, the hard X-ray sources are located on the external edges of the Halpha emission and show chromospheric plasma heated by the non-thermal electrons. The fast changes of Halpha intensities are located not only inside the hard X-ray sources, as expected if they are the signatures of the chromospheric response to the electron bombardment, but also away from them.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures, accepted to Solar Physic

Linguistics

Contains table of contents for Section 4, an introduction and abstracts for nine dissertations

Investigation of the Neupert effect in solar flares. I. Statistical properties and the evaporation model

Based on a sample of 1114 flares observed simultaneously in hard X-rays (HXR) by the BATSE instrument and in soft X-rays (SXR) by GOES, we studied several aspects of the Neupert effect and its interpretation in the frame of the electron-beam-driven evaporation model. In particular, we investigated the time differences ($\Delta t$) between the maximum of the SXR emission and the end of the HXR emission, which are expected to occur at almost the same time. Furthermore, we performed a detailed analysis of the SXR peak flux -- HXR fluence relationship for the complete set of events, as well as separately for subsets of events which are likely compatible/incompatibe with the timing expectations of the Neupert effect. The distribution of the time differences reveals a pronounced peak at $\Delta t = 0$. About half of the events show a timing behavior which can be considered to be consistent with the expectations from the Neupert effect. For these events, a high correlation between the SXR peak flux and the HXR fluence is obtained, indicative of electron-beam-driven evaporation. However, there is also a significant fraction of flares (about one fourth), which show strong deviations from $\Delta t = 0$, with a prolonged increase of the SXR emission distinctly beyond the end of the HXR emission. These results suggest that electron-beam-driven evaporation plays an important role in solar flares. Yet, in a significant fraction of events, there is also clear evidence for the presence of an additional energy transport mechanism other than the nonthermal electron beams, where the relative contribution is found to vary with the flare importance.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures, to be published in A&A (2002

Extreme Ultra-Violet Spectroscopy of the Lower Solar Atmosphere During Solar Flares

The extreme ultraviolet portion of the solar spectrum contains a wealth of diagnostic tools for probing the lower solar atmosphere in response to an injection of energy, particularly during the impulsive phase of solar flares. These include temperature and density sensitive line ratios, Doppler shifted emission lines and nonthermal broadening, abundance measurements, differential emission measure profiles, and continuum temperatures and energetics, among others. In this paper I shall review some of the advances made in recent years using these techniques, focusing primarily on studies that have utilized data from Hinode/EIS and SDO/EVE, while also providing some historical background and a summary of future spectroscopic instrumentation.Comment: 34 pages, 8 figures. Submitted to Solar Physics as part of the Topical Issue on Solar and Stellar Flare

An Observational Overview of Solar Flares

We present an overview of solar flares and associated phenomena, drawing upon a wide range of observational data primarily from the RHESSI era. Following an introductory discussion and overview of the status of observational capabilities, the article is split into topical sections which deal with different areas of flare phenomena (footpoints and ribbons, coronal sources, relationship to coronal mass ejections) and their interconnections. We also discuss flare soft X-ray spectroscopy and the energetics of the process. The emphasis is to describe the observations from multiple points of view, while bearing in mind the models that link them to each other and to theory. The present theoretical and observational understanding of solar flares is far from complete, so we conclude with a brief discussion of models, and a list of missing but important observations.Comment: This is an article for a monograph on the physics of solar flares, inspired by RHESSI observations. The individual articles are to appear in Space Science Reviews (2011