971 research outputs found
Quasi-Periodic Pulsations during the Impulsive and Decay phases of an X-class Flare
Quasi-periodic pulsations (QPP) are often observed in X-ray emission from
solar flares. To date, it is unclear what their physical origins are. Here, we
present a multi-instrument investigation of the nature of QPP during the
impulsive and decay phases of the X1.0 flare of 28 October 2013. We focus on
the character of the fine structure pulsations evident in the soft X-ray time
derivatives and compare this variability with structure across multiple
wavelengths including hard X-ray and microwave emission. We find that during
the impulsive phase of the flare, high correlations between pulsations in the
thermal and non-thermal emissions are seen. A characteristic timescale of ~20s
is observed in all channels and a second timescale of ~55s is observed in the
non-thermal emissions. Soft X-ray pulsations are seen to persist into the decay
phase of this flare, up to 20 minutes after the non-thermal emission has
ceased. We find that these decay phase thermal pulsations have very small
amplitude and show an increase in characteristic timescale from ~40s up to
~70s. We interpret the bursty nature of the co-existing multi-wavelength QPP
during the impulsive phase in terms of episodic particle acceleration and
plasma heating. The persistent thermal decay phase QPP are most likely
connected with compressive MHD processes in the post-flare loops such as the
fast sausage mode or the vertical kink mode.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl
Space Weather
This slide presentation reviews the hazards and effects of space weather on earth and in space to humans and manmade systems
Space Weather: From Fire to Ice and the Parker Solar Probe Mission
Objective: Enhance awareness of space weather and why you should care. Definition: The conditions on the Sun, in space, and in our upper atmosphere that can influence the performance and reliability of space-borne and ground-based technological systems and endanger human life or health
Detection and Interpretation Of Long-Lived X-Ray Quasi-Periodic Pulsations in the X-Class Solar Flare On 2013 May 14
Quasi-periodic pulsations (QPP) seen in the time derivative of the GOES soft
X-ray light curves are analyzed for the near-limb X3.2 event on 14 May 2013.
The pulsations are apparent for a total of at least two hours from the
impulsive phase to well into the decay phase, with a total of 163 distinct
pulses evident to the naked eye. A wavelet analysis shows that the
characteristic time scale of these pulsations increases systematically from
25 s at 01:10 UT, the time of the GOES peak, to 100 s at 02:00 UT.
A second ridge in the wavelet power spectrum, most likely associated with
flaring emission from a different active region, shows an increase from
40 s at 01:40 UT to 100 s at 03:10 UT. We assume that the QPP that
produced the first ridge result from vertical kink-mode oscillations of the
newly formed loops following magnetic reconnection in the coronal current
sheet. This allows us to estimate the magnetic field strength as a function of
altitude given the density, loop length, and QPP time scale as functions of
time determined from the GOES light curves and RHESSI images. The calculated
magnetic field strength of the newly formed loops ranges from about 500 G
at an altitude of 24 Mm to a low value of 10 G at 60 Mm, in general
agreement with the expected values at these altitudes. Fast sausage mode
oscillations are also discussed and cannot be ruled out as an alternate
mechanism for producing the QPP
Sub-arcsec X-Ray Telescope for Imaging The Solar Corona In the 0.25 - 1.2 keV Band
We have developed an X-ray telescope that uses a new technique for focusing X-rays with grazing incidence optics. The telescope was built with spherical optics for all of its components, utilizing the high quality surfaces obtainable when polishing spherical (as opposed to aspherical) optics. We tested the prototype X-ray telescope in the 300 meter vacuum pipe at White Sands Missile Range, NM. The telescope features 2 degee graze angles with tungsten coatings, yielding a bandpass of 0.25-1.5 keV with a peak effective area of 0.8 sq cm at 0.83 keV. Results from X-ray testing at energies of 0.25 keV and 0.93 keV (C-K and Cu-L) verify 0.5 arcsecond performance at 0.93 keV. Results from modeling the X-ray telescope's response to the Sun show that the current design would be capable of recording 10 half arcsecond images of a solar active region during a 300 second NASA sounding rocket flight
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