Microflares are small dynamic signatures observed in X-ray and extreme-ultraviolet channels. Because of their impulsive emission enhancements and wide distribution, they are thought to be closely related to coronal heating. By using the high resolution 171 Å images from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly and the lines-of-sight magnetograms obtained by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory, we trace 10794 microflares in a quiet region near the disk center with a field of view of 960 arcsec $\times$ 1068 arcsec during 24 hr. The microflares have an occurrence rate of 4.4 $\times$ 10$^{3}$ hr$^{-1}$ extrapolated over the whole Sun. Their average brightness, size, and lifetime are 1.7 I$_{0}$(of the quiet Sun), 9.6 Mm$^{2}$, and 3.6 min, respectively. There exists a mutual positive correlation between the microflares' brightness, area and lifetime. In general, the microflares distribute uniformly across the solar disk, but form network patterns locally, which are similar to and matched with the magnetic network structures. Typical cases show that the microflares prefer to occur in magnetic cancellation regions of network boundaries. We roughly calculate the upper limit of energy flux supplied by the microflares and find that the result is still a factor of $\sim$15 below the coronal heating requirement.
We aim to find similarities and differences between microflares at coronal bright points found in quiet regions and coronal holes, and to study their relationship with large scale flares. Coronal bright points in quiet regions and in coronal holes were observed with Hinode/EIS using the same sequence. Microflares associated with bright points are identified from the X-ray lightcurve. The temporal variation of physical properties was traced in the course of microflares. The lightcurves of microflares indicated an impulsive peak at hot emission followed by an enhancement at cool emission, which …
We present the first joint observation of a small microflare in X-rays with the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope ARray (NuSTAR), UV with the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) and EUV with the Solar Dynamics Observatory/Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (SDO/AIA). These combined observations allows us to study the microflare's hot coronal and cooler chromospheric/transition region emission. This small microflare peaks from SOL2016-07-26T23:35 to 23:36UT, in both NuSTAR, SDO/AIA and IRIS. Spatially this corresponds to a small loop visible in the SDO/AIA Fe XVIII emission, which matches a si…
Solar flares, with energies ranging over several orders of magnitude, result from impulsive release of energy due to magnetic reconnection in the corona. Barring a handful, almost all microflares observed in X-rays are associated with the solar active regions. Here we present, for the first time, a comprehensive analysis of a large sample of quiet Sun microflares observed in soft X-rays by the Solar X-ray Monitor (XSM) on board the Chandrayaan-2 mission during the 2019-20 solar minimum. A total of 98 microflares having peak flux below GOES A-level were observed by the XSM during observations s…
Investigate particle acceleration and heating in a solar microflare. In a microflare with non-thermal emission to remarkably high energies ($>50$ keV), we investigate the hard X-rays with RHESSI imaging and spectroscopy and the resulting thermal emission seen in soft X-rays with Hinode/XRT and in EUV with TRACE. The non-thermal footpoints observed with RHESSI spatially and temporally match bright footpoint emission in soft X-rays and EUV. There is the possibility that the non-thermal spectrum extends down to 4 keV. The hard X-ray burst clearly does not follow the expected Neupert effect, with …
We present spectral synthesis calculations of the solar extreme UV (EUV) in spherical symmetry carried out with the 'Solar Modeling in 3D' code. The calculations are based on one-dimensional atmospheric structures that represent a temporal and spatial mean of the chromosphere, transition region, and corona. The synthetic irradiance spectra are compared with the recent calibration spectrum taken with the EUV Variability Experiment during the Whole Heliospheric Interval. The good agreement between the synthetic and observed quiet Sun spectrum shows that the employed atmospheric structures are su…
Microflares are small activities in solar low atmosphere, some are in the low corona, and others in the chromosphere. Observations show that some of the microflares are triggered by magnetic reconnection between emerging flux and a pre-existing background magnetic field. We perform 2.5D compressible resistive MHD simulations of magnetic reconnection with gravity considered. The background magnetic field is a canopy-type configuration which is rooted at the boundary of the solar supergranule. By changing the bottom boundary conditions in the simulation, new magnetic flux emerges up at the cente…
In this paper we present the differential emission measures (DEMs) of two sub-A class microflares observed in hard X-rays (HXRs) by the FOXSI-2 sounding rocket experiment, on 2014 December 11. The second FOXSI (Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager) flight was coordinated with instruments Hinode/XRT and SDO/AIA, which provided observations in soft X-rays (SXR) and Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV). This unique dataset offers an unprecedented temperature coverage useful for characterizing the plasma temperature distribution of microflares. By combining data from FOXSI-2, XRT, and AIA, we determined a well…
An important question in solar physics is whether solar microflares, the smallest currently observable flare events in X-rays, possess the same energetic properties as large flares. Recent surveys have suggested that microflares may be less efficient particle accelerators than large flares, and hence contribute less nonthermal energy, which may have implications for coronal heating mechanisms. We therefore explore the energetic properties of microflares by combining Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) and X-ray measurements. We present forward-fitting differential emission measure (DEM) analysis of 10 m…
With gravity, ionization, and radiation being considered, we perform 2.5D compressible resistive MHD simulations of chromospheric magnetic reconnection using the CIP-MOCCT scheme. The temperature distribution of the quiet-Sun atmospheric model VALC and the helium abundance (10%) are adopted. Our 2.5D MHD simulation reproduces qualitatively the temperature enhancement observed in chromospheric microflares. The temperature enhancement $ΔT$ is demonstrated to be sensitive to the background magnetic field, whereas the total evolution time $Δt$ is sensitive to the magnitude of the anomalous resisti…
We present the result of comparison between magnetic field parameters and the intensity of X-ray emission for solar microflares with Geosynchronous Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) classes from A0.02 to B5.1. For our study, we used the monochromatic MgXII Imaging Spectroheliometer (MISH), Full-disk EUV Telescope (FET) and Solar PHotometer in X-rays (SphinX) instruments onboard the Complex Orbital Observations Near-Earth of Activity of the Sun-Photon (CORONAS-Photon) spacecraft because of their high sensitivity in soft X-rays. The peak flare flux (PFF) for solar microflares was found…
We present the {\it Solar Dynamics Observatory} (SDO) Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) observations of EUV cyclones in the quiet Sun. These cyclones are rooted in the Rotating Network magnetic Fields (RNFs). Such cyclones can last several to more than ten hours, and, at the later phase, they are found to be associated with EUV brightenings (microflares) and even EUV waves. SDO Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) observations show an ubiquitous presence of the RNFs. Using HMI line-of-sight magnetograms on 2010 July 8, we find 388 RNFs in an area of 800$\times$980 square arcseconds near the…
Spatially averaged (> 50'') EUV spectral lines in the transition region of solar quiet regions are known to be redshifted. Because the mechanism underlying this phenomenon is unclear, we require additional physical information on the lower corona for limiting the theoretical models. To acquire this information, we measured the Doppler shifts over a wide coronal temperature range (log T[K]=5.7--6.3) using the spectroscopic data taken by the Hinode EUV Imaging Spectrometer. By analyzing the data over the center-to-limb variations covering the meridian from the south to the north pole, we success…
Small scale flare-like brightenings around active regions are among the smallest and most fundamental of energetic transient events in the corona, providing a testbed for models of heating and active region dynamics. In a previous study, we modeled a large collection of these microflares observed with Hinode/XRT using EBTEL and found that they required multiple heating events, but could not distinguish between multiple heating events on a single strand, or multiple strands each experiencing a single heating event. We present here a similar study, but with EUV data of Active Region 11520 from t…
Microflares, one of small-scale solar activities, are believed to be caused by magnetic reconnection. Nevertheless, their three-dimensional (3D) magnetic structures, thermodynamic structures, and physical links to the reconnection have been unclear. In this Letter, based on high-resolution 3D radiative magnetohydrodynamic simulation of the quiet Sun spanning from the upper convection zone to the corona, we investigate 3D magnetic and thermodynamic structures of three homologous microflares. It is found that they originate from localized hot plasma embedded in the chromospheric environment at t…
Using detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) and rescaled range (R/S) analysis, we investigate the scaling properties of EUV intensity fluctuations of low-latitude coronal holes (CHs) and neighboring quiet-Sun (QS) regions in signals obtained with the Solar Dynamics Observatory/Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (SDO/AIA) instrument. Contemporaneous line-of-sight SDO/Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) magnetic fields provide a context for the physical environment. We find that the intensity fluctuations in the time series of EUV images present at each spatial point a scaling symmetry over the rang…
Measurements of the temperature and density structure of the solar corona provide critical constraints on theories of coronal heating. Unfortunately, the complexity of the solar atmosphere, observational uncertainties, and the limitations of current atomic calculations, particularly those for Fe, all conspire to make this task very difficult. A critical assessment of plasma diagnostics in the corona is essential to making progress on the coronal heating problem. In this paper we present an analysis of temperature and density measurements above the limb in the quiet corona using new observation…
One of the main science questions of the Solar Orbiter and Parker Solar Probe missions deals with understanding how electrons in the lower solar corona are accelerated and how they subsequently access interplanetary space. We aim to investigate the electron acceleration and energy release sites as well as the manner in which accelerated electrons access the interplanetary space in the case of the SOL2021-02-18T18:05 event, a GOES A8 class microflare associated with a coronal jet. This study takes advantage of three different vantage points, Solar Orbiter, STEREO-A, and Earth, with observations…
We benchmark new atomic data against a selection of irradiances obtained from medium-resolution quiet Sun spectra in the EUV, from 60 to 1040 Å. We use as a baseline the irradiances measured during solar minimum on 2008 April 14 by the prototype (PEVE) of the Solar Dynamics Observatory Extreme ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE). We take into account some inconsistencies in the PEVE data, using flight EVE data and irradiances we obtained from Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SoHO) Coronal Diagnostics Spectrometer (CDS) data. We perform a differential emission measure and find overall exc…
Since its launch on 22 September 2006, the EUV Imaging Spectrometer onboard the Hinode satellite has exhibited a gradual decay in sensitivity. Using spectroheliograms taken in the Fe VIII 185.21 Angstrom and Si VII 275.35 Angstrom emission lines in quiet regions near Sun center we characterize that decay. For the period from December 2006 to March 2012, the decline in the sensitivity can be characterized as an exponential decay with an average time constant of 7358 +/- 1030 days (20.2 +/- 2.8 years). Emission lines formed at temperatures >10^6.1 K in the quiet-Sun data exhibit solar-cycle effe…
We investigate the morphology and temporal variability of a quiet Sun network region in different solar layers. The emission in several EUV spectral lines through both raster and slot time series, recorded by EIS/Hinode is studied along with H$α$ observations and high resolution spectropolarimetric observations of the photospheric magnetic field. The photospheric magnetic field is extrapolated up to the corona showing a multitude of large and small scale structures. We show for the first time that the smallest magnetic structures both at the network and the internetwork contribute significantl…
We used data from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI), and Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on the \textit{Solar Dynamics Observatory} (SDO) to study coronal loops at small scales, emerging in the quiet Sun. With HMI line-of-sight magnetograms, we derive the integrated and unsigned photospheric magnetic flux at the loop footpoints in the photosphere. These loops are bright in the EUV channels of AIA. Using the six AIA EUV filters, we construct the differential emission measure (DEM) in the temperature range $5.7 - 6.5$ in log $T$ (K) for several hours of observations. The observed DEM…
We investigate the spatial, temporal, and spectral properties of 10 microflares from AR12721 on 2018 September 9 and 10 observed in X-rays using the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope ARray (NuSTAR) and the Solar Dynamic Observatory's Atmospheric Imaging Assembly and Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (SDO/AIA and HMI). We find GOES sub-A class equivalent microflare energies of 10$^{26}$-10$^{28}$ erg reaching temperatures up to 10 MK with consistent quiescent or hot active region core plasma temperatures of 3-4 MK. One microflare (SOL2018-09-09T10:33), with an equivalent GOES class of A0.1, has no…
We propose that coronal heating in EUV coronal plumes is weaker, not stronger, than in adjacent non-plume coronal magnetic funnels. This expectation stems from (i) the observation that an EUV plume is born as the magnetic flux at the foot of the plume's magnetic funnel becomes tightly packed together, and (ii) the observation that coronal heating in quiet regions increases in proportion to the coast-line length of the underlying magnetic network. We do not rule out the possibility that coronal heating in EUV plumes might be stronger, not weaker, but we point out how the opposite is plausible. …
Recently nonthermal radio transients from the quiet sun have been discovered and it has been hypothesised using rough calculations that they might be important for coronal heating. It is well realized that energy calculations using coherent emissions are often subject to poorly constrained parameters and hence have large uncertainties associated with them. However energy estimates using observations in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and soft X-ray bands are routinely done and the techniques are pretty well established. This work presents our first attempt to identify the EUV counterparts of the…
NuSTAR is a highly sensitive focusing hard X-ray (HXR) telescope and has observed several small microflares in its initial solar pointings. In this paper, we present the first joint observation of a microflare with NuSTAR and Hinode/XRT on 2015 April 29 at ~11:29 UT. This microflare shows heating of material to several million Kelvin, observed in Soft X-rays (SXRs) with Hinode/XRT, and was faintly visible in Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) with SDO/AIA. For three of the four NuSTAR observations of this region (pre-, decay, and post phases) the spectrum is well fitted by a single thermal model of 3.2…
The Spectrometer/Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX) is the HXR instrument onboard Solar Orbiter designed to observe solar flares over a broad range of flare sizes, between 4-150 keV. We report the first STIX observations of microflares recorded during the instrument commissioning phase in order to investigate the STIX performance at its detection limit. This first result paper focuses on the temporal and spectral evolution of STIX microflares occuring in the AR12765 in June 2020, and compares the STIX measurements with GOES/XRS, SDO/AIA, and Hinode/XRT. For the observed microflares of the GOE…
We examine the cradle-to-grave magnetic evolution of 10 bipolar ephemeral active regions (BEARs) in solar coronal holes, especially aspects of the magnetic evolution leading to each of 43 obvious microflare events. The data are from Solar Dynamics Observatory: 211 A coronal EUV images and line-of-sight photospheric magnetograms. We find evidence that (1) each microflare event is a magnetic explosion that results in a miniature flare arcade astride the polarity inversion line (PIL) of the explosive lobe of the BEARs anemone magnetic field; (2) relative to the BEAR's emerged flux-rope omega loop…
A comparison between a Coronal Hole (CH) and the adjacent Quiet-Sun (QS) has been performed using spectroscopic diagnostics of Hinode/ the EUV Imaging Spectrometer (EIS). Coronal funnels play an important role in the formation and propagation of the nascent fast solar wind. Applying Gaussian fitting procedures to the observed line profiles, Doppler velocity, intensity, line width (FWHM) and electron density have been estimated over CH and adjacent QS region of a North Polar Coronal Hole (NPCH). The aim of this study is to identify the coronal funnels based on spectral signatures. Excess width …
Thermodynamic properties of small flares in the quiet Sun observed by H$α$ and EUV: plasma motion of the chromosphere and time evolution of temperature/emission measure
Nanoflares, the basic unit of impulsive energy release may produce much of the solar background emission. Extrapolation of the energy frequency distribution of observed microflares, which follows a power law to lower energies can give an estimation of the importance of nanoflares for heating the solar corona. If the power law index is greater than 2, then the nanoflare contribution is dominant. We model time series of extreme ultraviolet emission radiance, as random flares with a power law exponent of the flare event distribution. The model is based on three key parameters, the flare rate, the…
In the previous works the significance of the symmetric and non-symmetric ion-atom absorption processes in far UV and EUV regions within a model of the quiet Sun atmosphere, has been studied. The considered processes were the processes of the photo-dissociation of the molecular ions H$_{2}^{+}$ and H$X^{+}$ and absorption processes in H+H$^{+}$ and H$+X^{+}$ collisions, where $X$ denotes the metal atom. As the continuation of the previous investigation, these processes are considered also within the corresponding sunspot model. In this work the non-symmetric ion-atom absorption processes are c…
Solar flares are sudden energy release events in the solar corona, resulting from magnetic reconnection, that accelerates particles and heats the ambient plasma. During a flare, there are often multiple, temporally and spatially separated individual energy release episodes that can be difficult to resolve depending on the observing instrument. We present multi-wavelength imaging and spectroscopy observations of multiple electron acceleration episodes during a GOES B1.7-class two-ribbon flare on 2012 February 25, observed simultaneously with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) at 1--2 GHz…
We present work in progress concerning spectral synthesis calculations of the solar UV/EUV in spherical symmetry carried out with the Solar Radiation Physical Modeling (SRPM) project. We compare the synthetic irradiance spectrum for the quiet Sun with the recent solar minimum spectrum taken with the EVE rocket instrument. The good agreement of the synthetic spectrum with the observation shows that the employed atmosphere structures are suitable for irradiance calculations.
Using Hinode EUV Imaging Spectrometer (EIS) spectra recorded daily at Sun center from the end of 2006 to early 2011, we studied the long-term evolution of the quiet corona. The light curves of the higher temperature emission lines exhibit larger variations in sync with the solar activity cycle while the cooler lines show reduced modulation. Our study shows that the high temperature component of the corona changes in quiet regions, even though the coronal electron density remains almost constant there. The results suggest that heat input to the quiet corona varies with the solar activity cycle.
We analyzed ground-based low frequency ($<$100\,MHz) radio spectral and imaging data of the solar corona obtained with the facilities in the Gauribidanur observatory during the same time as the very weak soft X-ray flares (sub A-class, flux $\rm {<}10^{-7}\,Wm^{-2}$ in the 1\,-\,8\,$\rm Å$ wavelength range) from the `quiet' Sun observed with the X-ray Solar Monitor (XSM) onboard Chandrayaan-2 during the recent solar minimum. Non-thermal type I radio burst activity were noticed in close temporal association with the X-ray events. The estimated brightness temperature ($T_{b}$) of the bursts at a…
We present first results of a novel technique that provides, for the first time, constraints on the energy input flux at the coronal base ($r\sim\,1.025\,{\rm R}_\odot$) of the quiet-Sun at a global scale. By combining differential emission measure tomography (DEMT) of EUV images, with global models of the coronal magnetic field, we estimate the energy input flux at the coronal base that is required to maintain thermodynamically stable structures. The technique is described in detail and first applied to data provided by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUVI) instrument, on board the Solar TErr…
We present preliminary reconstructions of the EUV from 26 to 34\,nm from February 1997 to May 2005, covering most of solar cycle 23. The reconstruction is based on synthetic EUV spectra calculated with the spectral synthesis code Solar Modeling in 3D (SolMod3D). These spectra are weighted by the relative area coverage of the coronal features as identified from EIT images. The calculations are based on one-dimensional atmospheric structures that represent a temporal and spatial mean of the chromosphere, transition region, and corona. The employed segmentation analysis considers coronal holes, t…
The quiet solar corona consists of myriads of loop-like features, with magnetic fields originating from network and internetwork regions on the solar surface. The continuous interaction between these different magnetic patches leads to transient brightenings or bursts that might contribute to the heating of the solar atmosphere. However, it remains unclear whether such transients, which are mostly observed in the EUV, play a significant role in atmospheric heating. We revisit the open question of these bursts as a prelude to the new high-resolution EUV imagery expected from the recently launch…
We report the smallest coronal jets ever observed in the quiet Sun with recent high resolution observations from the High Resolution Telescopes (HRI-EUV and HRI-Lyα) of the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) onboard Solar Orbiter. In the HRI-EUV (174 Å) images, these microjets usually appear as nearly collimated structures with brightenings at their footpoints. Their average lifetime, projected speed, width, and maximum length are 4.6 min, 62 km s^(-1), 1.0 Mm, and 7.7 Mm, respectively. Inverted-Y shaped structures and moving blobs can be identified in some events. A subset of these events also …
We present the observations of three sympathetic filament eruptions occurring on 19 July 2015 namely F1, F2, and F3. The events were observed in UV/EUV wavelengths by Atmospheric Imaging Assembly onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory and by Global Oscillation Network Group telescope in Hα line. As filament F1 starts to erupt, a part of it falls close to the location of the F2 and F3 filaments. This causes the eruption of F2 and F3 during which the two filaments merge together and trigger a medium-class CME and a long-duration GOES C2.1 class flare. We discuss the dynamics and kinematics of th…
We report observations of ten random on-disk solar quiet region coronal jets found in high resolution Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)/Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) and having good coverage in magnetograms from the SDO/Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI). Recent studies show that coronal jets are driven by the eruption of a small-scale filament (called a minifilament). However the trigger of these eruptions is still unknown. In the present study we address the question: what leads to the jet-driving minifilament eruptions? The EUV observations …
Understanding the density structure of the solar corona is important for modeling both coronal heating and the solar wind. Direct measurements are difficult because of line-of-sight integration and possible unresolved structures. We present a new method for quantifying such structure using density-sensitive EUV line intensities to derive a density irregularity parameter, a relative measure of the amount of structure along the line of sight. We also present a simple model to relate the inferred irregularities to physical quantities, such as the filling factor and density contrast. For quiet Sun…
Even small solar flares can display a surprising level of complexity regarding their morphology and temporal evolution. Many of their properties, such as energy release and electron acceleration can be studied using highly complementary observations at X-ray and radio wavelengths. We present X-ray observations from the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) and radio observations from the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) of a series of GOES A3.4 to B1.6 class flares observed on 2013 April 23. The flares, as seen in X-ray and extreme ultraviolet (EUV), originated fro…
For the first time, we present and discuss EUV radiances of the solar transition region (TR) and corona obtained during a solar cycle. The measurements were obtained with the SOHO/coronal diagnostic spectrometer (CDS) during the period from 1996 to 2010. We find that limb-brightening significantly affects any characterisation of the solar radiances. We present the limb-brightening function for the main lines and find that it does not change measurably during the cycle. We confirm earlier findings that the radiance histogram of the cooler lines have a well defined, log-normal quiet-Sun componen…
We present a model for the intensity of optically thin EUV emission for a plasma atmosphere. We apply our model to the solar corona as observed using the six optically thin EUV channels of the SDO/AIA instrument. The emissivity of the plasma is calculated from the density and temperature using CHIANTI tables and the intensity is then determined by integration along the line of sight. We consider several different profiles for the radial density and temperature profiles, each of which are constrained by the observational data alone with no further physical assumptions. We demonstrate the method…
We present first science observations taken during the commissioning activities of the Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment (SPICE) instrument on the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter mission. SPICE is a high-resolution imaging spectrometer operating at extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wavelengths. In this paper we illustrate the possible types of observations to give prospective users a better understanding of the science capabilities of SPICE. The paper discusses the first observations of the Sun on different targets and presents an example of the full spectra from the quiet Sun, identifying over 40 sp…
