Fermi-LAT Observations of High-energy Behind-the-limb Solar Flares
M. Ackermann, A. Allafort, L. Baldini, G. Barbiellini, D. Bastieri, R. Bellazzini, E. Bissaldi, R. Bonino, E. Bottacini, J. Bregeon, P. Bruel, R. Buehler, R. A.… 展开作者
M. Ackermann, A. Allafort, L. Baldini, G. Barbiellini, D. Bastieri, R. Bellazzini, E. Bissaldi, R. Bonino, E. Bottacini, J. Bregeon, P. Bruel, R. Buehler, R. A. Cameron, M. Caragiulo, P. A. Caraveo, E. Cavazzuti, C. Cecchi, E. Charles, S. Ciprini, F. Costanza, S. Cutini, F. D'Ammando, F. de Palma, R. Desiante, S. W. Digel, N. Di Lalla, M. Di Mauro, L. Di Venere, P. S. Drell, C. Favuzzi, Y. Fukazawa, P. Fusco, F. Gargano, N. Giglietto, F. Giordano, M. Giroletti, I. A. Grenier, L. Guillemot, S. Guiriec, T. Jogler, G. Jóhannesson, L. Kashapova, S. Krucker, M. Kuss, G. La Mura, S. Larsson, L. Latronico, J. Li, W. Liu, F. Longo, F. Loparco, P. Lubrano, J. D. Magill, S. Maldera, A. Manfreda, M. N. Mazziotta, W. Mitthumsiri, T. Mizuno, M. E. Monzani, A. Morselli, I. V. Moskalenko, M. Negro, E. Nuss, T. Ohsugi, N. Omodei, E. Orlando, V. Pal'shin, D. Paneque, J. S. Perkins, M. Pesce-Rollins, V. Petrosian, F. Piron, G. Principe, S. Rainò, R. Rando, M. Razzano, O. Reimer, F. Rubio da Costa, C. Sgrò, D. Simone, E. J. Siskind, F. Spada, G. Spandre, P. Spinelli, H. Tajima, J. B. Thayer, D. F. Torres, E. Troja, G. Vianello
We report on the Fermi-LAT detection of high-energy emission from the behind-the-limb (BTL) solar flares that occurred on 2013 October 11, and 2014 January 6 and September 1. The Fermi-LAT observations are associated with flares from active regions originating behind both the eastern and western limbs, as determined by STEREO. All three flares are associated with very fast coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and strong solar energetic particle events. We present updated localizations of the >100 MeV photon emission, hard X-ray (HXR)and EUV images, and broadband spectra from 10 keV to 10 GeV, as well as microwave spectra. We also provide a comparison of the BTL flares detected by Fermi-LAT with three on-disk flares and present a study of some of the significant quantities of these flares as an attempt to better understand the acceleration mechanisms at work during these occulted flares. We interpret the HXR emission to be due to electron bremsstrahlung from a coronal thin-target loop top with the accelerated electron spectra steepening at semirelativistic energies. The >100 MeV gamma-rays are best described by a pion-decay model resulting from the interaction of protons (and other ions) in a thick-target photospheric source. The protons are believed to have been accelerated (to energies >10 GeV) in the CME environment and precipitate down to the photosphere from the downstream side of the CME shock and landed on the front side of the Sun, away from the original flare site and the HXR emission.
We report the first detection of >100 MeV gamma rays associated with a behind-the-limb solar flare, which presents a unique opportunity to probe the underlying physics of high-energy flare emission and particle acceleration. On 2013 October 11 a GOES M1.5 class solar flare occurred ~ 9.9 degrees behind the solar limb as observed by STEREO-B. RHESSI observed hard X-ray emission above the limb, most likely from the flare loop-top, as the footpoints were occulted. Surprisingly, the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) detected >100 MeV gamma-rays for ~30 minutes with energies up to GeV. The LAT emiss…
We present the Fermi-LAT observations of the behind-the-limb (BTL) flare of July 17, 2021 and the joint detection of this flare by STIX onboard Solar Orbiter. The separation between Earth and the Solar Orbiter was 99.2$^{\circ}$ at 05:00 UT, allowing STIX to have a front view of the flare. The location of the flare was ~S20E140 in Stonyhurst heliographic coordinates making this the most distant behind-the-limb flare ever detected in $>$100 MeV gamma-rays. The LAT detection lasted for $\sim$16 minutes, the peak flux was $ 3.6 \pm 0.8 $ (10$^{-5}$) ph cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ with a significance $>$15…
A statistical analysis of radio flare events was performed by using the event list of Nobeyama Radioheliograph in 1996-2009. We examined center-to-limb variations of 17GHz and 34GHz flux by dividing the flare events into different groups with respect to the 'thermal plasma richness' (ratio of the peak flux of soft X-ray to non-thermal radio emissions) and the duration of radio bursts. It is found that peak flux of 17 and 34GHz tend to be higher toward the limb for thermal-rich flares with short durations. We propose that the thermal-rich flares, which are supposed to be associated with an effi…
It is generally accepted that densities of quiet sun and active region plasma are sufficiently low to justify the optically thin approximation, and it is commonly used in the analysis of line emissions from plasma in the solar corona. However, densities of solar flare loops are substantially higher, compromising the optically thin approximation. This study begins with a radiative transfer model that uses typical solar flare densities and geometries to show that hot coronal emission lines are not generally optically thin. Further, the model demonstrates that the observed line intensity should e…
We conduct a detailed analysis of an M1.3 limb flare occurring on 2017 July 3, which have the X-ray observations recorded by multiple hard X-ray telescopes, including Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (Insight-HXMT), Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI), and The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (FERMI). Joint analysis has also used the EUV imaging data from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) aboard the Solar Dynamic Observatory. The hard X-ray spectral and imaging evolution suggest a lower corona source, and the non-thermal broken power law distribution has a rather low brea…
The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory has provided unique observations of off-limb flare emission. White-light (WL) continuum enhancements were detected in the "continuum" channel of the Fe 6173 A line during the impulsive phase of the observed flares. In this paper we aim to determine which radiation mechanism is responsible for such an enhancement being seen above the limb, at chromospheric heights around or below 1000 km. Using a simple analytical approach, we compare two candidate mechanisms, the hydrogen recombination continuum (Paschen) and the Thoms…
Flare ribbons are bright manifestations of flare energy dissipation in the lower solar atmosphere. For the first time, we report on high-resolution imaging spectroscopy observations of flare ribbons situated off-limb in the H$β$ and Ca II 8542 Å lines and make a detailed comparison with radiative hydrodynamic simulations. Observations of the X8.2-class solar flare SOL2017-09-10T16:06 UT obtained with the Swedish Solar Telescope reveal bright horizontal emission layers in H$β$ line wing images located near the footpoints of the flare loops. The apparent separation between the ribbon observed in…
Observations of the Sun's off-limb white-light (WL) flares offer rare opportunities to study the energy release and transport mechanisms in flare loops. One of the best such events was SOL2017-09-10, an X8.2 flare that occurred near the Sun's west limb on 2017 September 10 and produced a WL loop system lasting more than 60 minutes and reaching an altitude higher than 30 Mm. The event was well observed by a suite of ground- and space-based instruments, including the Solar Dynamics Observatory/Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (SDO/HMI) that captured its off-limb loops in WL continuum near Fe I 6…
Fermi-LAT >30 MeV observations have increased the number of detected solar flares by almost a factor of 10 with respect to previous space observations. These sample both the impulsive and long duration phases of GOES M and X class flares. Of particular interest is the recent detections of three solar flares whose position behind the limb was confirmed by the STEREO-B spacecraft. While gamma-ray emission up to tens of MeV resulting from proton interactions has been detected before from occulted solar flares, the significance of these particular events lies in the fact that these are the first d…
This study on plasma heating considers the time-dependent ionization process during a large solar flare on September 10, 2017, observed by Hinode/EIS. The observed FeXXIV / FeXXIII ratios increase downstream of the reconnection outflow, and they are consistent with the time-dependent ionization effect at a constant electron temperature Te = 25 MK. Moreover, this study also shows that the non-thermal velocity, which can be related to the turbulent velocity, reduces significantly along the downstream of the reconnection outflow, even when considering the time-dependent ionization process.
At hard X-ray energies, the bright footpoint emission from solar flare loops often prevents a detailed analysis of the weaker loop-top source morphology due to the limited dynamic range available for X-ray imaging. Here, we study the X1.3 April 25, 2014 flare with the Reuven Ramaty High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI). This partially occulted limb flare allows the analysis of the loop-top emission in isolation. We present results on the flare light curve at different energies, the source morphology from X-ray imaging and a detailed spectral analysis of the different source component…
It has been found that photospheric magnetic fields can change in accordance with the three-dimensional magnetic field restructuring following solar eruptions. Previous studies mainly use vector magnetic field data taken for events near the disk center. In this paper, we analyze the magnetic field evolution associated with the 2012 October 23 X1.8 flare in NOAA AR 11598 that is close to the solar limb, using both the 45 s cadence line-of-sight and 12 minute cadence vector magnetograms from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on board Solar Dynamic Observatory. This flare is classified as a ci…
Context. The observation of >100 MeV γ-rays in the minutes to hours following solar flares suggests that high-energy particles interacting in the solar atmosphere can be stored and/or accelerated for long time periods. The occasions when γ-rays are detected even when the solar eruptions occurred beyond the solar limb as viewed from Earth provide favorable viewing conditions for studying the role of coronal shocks driven by coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in the acceleration of these particles. Aims: In this paper, we investigate the spatial and temporal evolution of the coronal shocks inferred f…
We have investigated a supra-arcade structure, associated with an M1.6 flare, which occurred on the south-east limb on 4th of November 2010. It is observed in microwaves at 17 GHz with the Nobeyama Radioheliograph (NoRH), soft X-rays in the range of 8-20 keV with the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI), and EUV with the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). As reported by Reeves & Golub (2011), the supra-arcade structure is observed predominantly in the AIA 131 Å channel, which contains a hot 11 MK component from Fe XIX (Boer…
With increasing solar activity since 2010, many flares from the backside of the Sun have been observed by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUVI) on either of the twin STEREO spacecraft. Our objective is to estimate their X-ray peak fluxes from EUVI data by finding a relation of the EUVI with GOES X-ray fluxes. Because of the presence of the Fe xxiv line at 192 A, the response of the EUVI 195 A channel has a secondary broad peak around 15 MK, and its fluxes closely trace X-ray fluxes during the rise phase of flares. If the flare plasma is isothermal, the EUVI flux should be directly proportional…
Mercury mission MESSENGER's %(MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging Solar Assembly for X-rays (SAX) observed almost 700 solar flares between May 28, 2007 and August 19, 2013, as cataloged by \citet{dennisSOLARFLAREELEMENT2015}. The SAX instrument, part of the X-ray Spectrometer (XRS), operated at 1 -- 10 keV, partially overlapping the energy range of the GOES X-ray spectrometers. SAX provides viewing angles different from the Earth-Sun line and can therefore be used as a GOES proxy for partially or fully occulted flares as seen from Earth. For flares with GOES classes a…
We report the first science results from the newly completed Expanded Owens Valley Solar Array (EOVSA), which obtained excellent microwave imaging spectroscopy observations of SOL2017-09-10, a classic partially-occulted solar limb flare associated with an erupting flux rope. This event is also well-covered by the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) in hard X-rays (HXRs). We present an overview of this event focusing on microwave and HXR data, both associated with high-energy nonthermal electrons, and discuss them within the context of the flare geometry and evolution …
Multiwavelength Observations of the Precursors Before the Eruptive X4.9 Limb Solar Flare on 25 February, 2014: Current Sheet, Eruptive Filament, Flare and Eruption Onset in the Frame of the Tether-Cutting Magnetic Reconnection Scenario
The density distribution of flare loops and the mechanisms of their emission in the continuum are still open questions. On September 10, 2017 a prominent loop system appeared during the gradual phase of an X8.2 flare (SOL2017-09-10), visible in all passbands of SDO/AIA and in the white-light continuum of SDO/HMI. We investigate its electron density by taking into account all radiation processes in the flare loops, i.e. the Thomson continuum, hydrogen Paschen and Brackett recombination continua, as well as free-free continuum emission. We derive a quadratic function of the electron density for …
We perform Differential Emission Measure (DEM) analysis of an M7.7 flare that occurred on 2012 July 19 and was well observed by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) aboard the Solar Dynamic Observatory. Using the observational data with unprecedented high temporal and spatial resolution from six AIA coronal passbands, we calculate the DEM of the flare and derive the time series of maps of DEM-weighted temperature and emission measure (EM). It is found that, during the flare, the highest EM region is located in the flare loop top with a value varying between 8.4 10^28 cm^-5 and 2.5 10^30 cm^-…
Drifting pulsation structures (DPSs) are important radio fine structures usually observed at the beginning of eruptive solar flares. It has been suggested that DPSs carry important information on the energy release processes in solar flares. We study DPS observed in an X8.2-class flare on 2017 September 10 in the context of spatial and spectral diagnostics provided by microwave, EUV, and X-ray observations. We describe DPS and its sub-structures that were observed for the first time. We use a new wavelet technique to reveal characteristic periods in DPS and their frequency bands. Comparing the…
We report a detailed study of the pre-eruption activities that led to the occurrence of an M9.0 flare/CME event on 2012 October 20 in NOAA AR 11598. This includes the study of the preceding confined C2.4 flare that occurred on the same AR ~25 minutes earlier. We observed that the M9.0 flare occurred as a consequence of two distinct triggering events well separated in time. The first triggering episode occurred as early as ~20 minutes before the onset of the M9.0 flare, evidenced by the destabilization and rise of a pre-existing filament to a new position of equilibrium at a higher coronal alti…
Solar hard X-rays (HXRs) appear in the form of either footpoint sources or coronal sources, and each individual source provides its own critical information on acceleration of nonthermal electrons and plasma heating. Earlier studies found that the HXR emission in some events manifests a broken-up power-law spectrum with the break energy around a few hundred keV based on spatially-integrated spectral analysis, without distinguishing the contributions from individual sources. In this paper, we report the broken-up spectra of a coronal source studied using HXR data recorded by Ramaty High Energy …
The origin of hard X-rays and gamma-rays emitted from the solar atmosphere during occulted solar flares is still debated. The hard X-ray emissions could come from flaring loop tops rising above the limb or Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) shock waves, two by-products of energetic solar storms. For the shock scenario to work, accelerated particles must be released on magnetic field lines rooted on the visible disk and precipitate. We present a new Monte Carlo code that computes particle acceleration at shocks propagating along large coronal magnetic loops. A first implementation of the model is car…
Recent detections of high-energy $γ$-rays from behind-the-limb (BTL) solar flares by the \emph{Fermi $γ$-ray Space Telescope} pose a puzzle and challenge on the particle acceleration and transport mechanisms. In such events, the $γ$-ray emission region is located away from the BTL flare site by up to tens of degrees in heliogrpahic longitude. It is thus hypothesized that particles are accelerated at the shock driven by the coronal mass ejection (CME) and then travel from the shock downstream back to the front side of the Sun to produce the observed $γ$-rays. To test this scenario, we performed…
The Fermi gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi) has detected hard X-ray (HXR) and gamma-ray photons from three flares, which according to \stereo occurred in active regions behind the limb of the Sun as delineated by near Earth instruments. For two of these flares \r has provided HXR images with sources located just above the limb, presumably from the loop top (LT) region of a relatively large loop. Fermi-Gamma-ray Burst Monitor has detected HXRs and gamma-rays, and RSTN has detected microwaves emissions with similar light curves. This paper presents a quantitative analysis of these multi-waveleng…
We investigate various dynamic processes including magnetic reconnection, chromospheric evaporation, and coronal rain draining in two limb solar flares through imaging and spectroscopic observations from the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory. In the early phase of the flares, a bright and dense loop-top structure with a cusp-like shape can be seen in multi-wavelength images, which is co-spatial with the hard X-ray 25--50 keV emission. In particular, intermittent magnetic reconnection downflows are det…
COBALT-BLUE: a fast and accurate model for gravitational self-lensing binary systems
Newcastle University（纽卡斯尔大学）；Durham University（杜伦大学）；University of Southampton（南安普顿大学）；Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center, Polish Academy of Sciences（波兰科学院尼古拉·哥白尼天文学中心）；The Open University（开放大学）；Michigan State University（密歇根州立大学）；University of Washington（华盛顿大学）
Stellar flares of active M dwarfs can affect the atmospheric composition of close-orbiting gas giants, and can result in time-dependent transmission spectra. We aim to examine the impact of a variety of flares, differing in energy, duration, and occurrence frequency, on the composition and spectra of close-orbiting, tidally locked gaseous planets with climates dominated by equatorial superrotation. We used a series of pseudo-2D photo- and thermochemical kinetics models, which take advection by the equatorial jet stream into account, to simulate the neutral molecular composition of a gaseous pl…
Here we report on the unique observation of flaring coronal loops at the solar limb using high resolution imaging spectropolarimetry from the Swedish 1-meter Solar Telescope. The vantage position, orientation and nature of the chromospheric material that filled the flare loops allowed us to determine their magnetic field with unprecedented accuracy using the weak-field approximation method. Our analysis reveals coronal magnetic field strengths as high as 350 Gauss at heights up to 25 Mm above the solar limb. These measurements are substantially higher than a number of previous estimates and ma…
The chromospheric Lyman-alpha line of neutral hydrogen (\lya; 1216Å) is the strongest emission line in the solar spectrum. Fluctuations in \lya\ are known to drive changes in planetary atmospheres, although few instruments have had the ability to capture rapid \lya\ enhancements during solar flares. In this paper we describe flare-associated emissions via a statistical study of 477 M- and X-class flares as observed by the EUV Sensor on board the 15th Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, which has been monitoring the full-disk solar \lya\ irradiance on 10~s timescales over the cou…
We describe a new technique to measure the height of the X-ray limb with observations from occulted X-ray flare sources as observed by the RHESSI (the Reuven Ramaty High-Energy Spectroscopic Imager) satellite. This method has model dependencies different from those present in traditional observations at optical wavelengths, which depend upon detailed modeling involving radiative transfer in a medium with complicated geometry and flows. It thus provides an independent and more rigorous measurement of the "true" solar radius, meaning that of the mass distribution. RHESSI's measurement makes use …
Using the observations from Solar Dynamics Observatory, we study an eruption of a hot-channel flux rope (FR) near the solar-limb on February 9, 2015. The pre-eruptive structure is visible mainly in EUV 131 $\mathring{\mathrm{A}}$ images with two highly-sheared loop structures. They undergo slow rise motion and then reconnect to form an eruptive hot-channel as in the tether-cutting reconnection model. The J-shaped flare-ribbons trace the footpoint of the FR which is identified as the hot-channel. Initially, the hot channel is observed to rise slowly at 40 km s$^{-1}$, followed by an exponential…
In order to efficiently analyse the vast amount of data generated by solar space missions and ground-base instruments, modern machine learning techniques such as decision trees, support vector machines (SVMs) and neural networks can be very useful. In this paper we present initial results from using a convolutional neural network (CNN) to analyse observations from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) in the 1600A wavelength. The data is pre-processed to locate flaring regions where flare ribbons are visible in the observations. The CNN is created and trained to automatically analyse the shap…
The newly developed X-ray visibility forward fitting technique is applied to Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) data of a limb flare to investigate the energy and height dependence on sizes, shapes, and position of hard X-ray chromospheric footpoint sources. This provides information about the electron transport and chromospheric density structure. The spatial distribution of two footpoint X-ray sources is analyzed using PIXON, Maximum Entropy Method, CLEAN and visibility forward fit algorithms at nonthermal energies from $\sim 20$ to $\sim 200$ keV. We report, for t…
This paper is an attempt to understand the physical processes occurring in different layers of solar atmosphere during a solar flare. For a complete understanding of the flare we must analyze multi-wavelength datasets, as emission at different wavelength originates from different layers of the solar atmosphere. Also, flares are transient and localized events observed to occur at all longitudes. With these considerations, we have carried out multi-wavelength analysis of two representative flare events. One event occurred close to the centre of the solar disk and other occurred close to the limb…
A filament eruption was observed with the Siberian Solar Radio Telescope (SSRT) on June 23 2012, starting around 06:40 UT, beyond the West limb. The filament could be followed in SSRT images to heights above 1 Rs, and coincided with the core of the CME, seen in LASCO C2 images. We discuss briefly the dynamics of the eruption: the top of the filament showed a smooth acceleration up to an apparent velocity of 1100 km/s. Images behind the limb from STEREO-A show a two ribbon flare and the interaction of the main filament, located along the primary neutral line, with an arch-like structure, orient…
As the Lyman-alpha (Lya) line of neutral hydrogen is the brightest emission line in the solar spectrum, detecting increases in irradiance due to solar flares at this wavelength can be challenging due to the very high background. Previous studies that have focused on the largest flares have shown that even these extreme cases generate enhancements in Lya of only a few percent above the background. In this study, a superposed-epoch analysis was performed on ~8500 flares greater than B1 class to determine the contribution that flares make to changes in the solar EUV irradiance. Using the peak of …
High-energy solar flares have shown to have at least two distinct phases: prompt-impulsive and delayed-gradual. Identifying the mechanism responsible for accelerating the electrons and ions and the site at which it occurs during these two phases is one of the outstanding questions in solar physics. Many advances have been made over the past decade thanks to new observational data and refined simulations that together help to shed light on this topic. For example, the detection by Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) of GeV emission from solar flares originating from behind the visible solar limb a…
In solar flares, inverse Compton scattering (ICS) of photospheric photons might give rise to detectable hard X-ray photon fluxes from the corona where ambient densities are too low for significant bremsstrahlung or recombination. Gamma-ray lines and continuum in some large flares imply the presence of the necessary ~100 MeV electrons and positrons, the latter as by-products of GeV energy ions. Recent observations of coronal hard X-ray sources in particular prompt us to reconsider here the possible contribution of ICS. We aim to evaluate the ICS X-ray fluxes to be expected from prescribed popul…
Solar flares are one of the main forces behind space weather events. However the mechanism that drives such energetic phenomena is not fully understood. The standard eruptive flare model predicts that magnetic reconnection occurs high in the corona where hot fast flows are created. Some imaging or spectroscopic observations have indicated the presence of these hot fast flows but there have been no spectroscopic scanning observation to date to measure the two-dimensional structure quantitatively. We analyzed a flare that occurred on the west solar limb on 27 January 2012 observed by the Hinode …
Statistical dependencies among features of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), solar flares, and sigmoidal structures in soft-X-ray images were investigated. We applied analysis methods to all the features in the same way in order to investigate the reproducibility of the correlations among them, which may be found from the combination of previous statistical studies. The samples of 211 M-class and X-class flares, which were observed between 2006 and 2015 by Hinode/X-ray telescope, Solar and Heliospheric Observatory/Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph, and GOES, were examined statistically. F…
This paper reports on a search for flare emission via charge-exchange radiation in the wings of the Lyman-alpha line of He ii at 304 A, as originally suggested for hydrogen by Orrall and Zirker. Via this mechanism a primary alpha particle that penetrates into the neutral chromosphere can pick up an atomic electron and emit in the He ii bound-bound spectrum before it stops. The Extreme-ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) gives us our first chance to search for this effect systematically. The Orrall-Zirker mechanism has great importance for flar…
Flare loops form an integral part of eruptive events, being detected in the range of temperatures from X-rays down to cool chromospheric-like plasmas. While the hot loops are routinely observed by the Solar Dynamics Observatory's Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (SDO/AIA), cool loops seen off-limb are rare. In this paper we employ unique observations of the SOL2017-09-10T16:06 X8.2-class flare which produced an extended arcade of loops. The Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope (SST) made a series of spectral images of the cool off-limb loops in the Ca II 8542 Å and the hydrogen H$β$ lines. Our focus is on …
High-Time-Cadence Spectroscopy and Photometry of Stellar Flares on M-dwarf YZ Canis Minoris with Seimei Telescope and TESS. II. Statistical Properties of Blue/Red Asymmetries in the H$α$ Line
Young solar-type stars are known to show frequent "superflares", which may severely influence the habitable worlds on young planets via intense radiations and coronal mass ejections. Here we report an optical spectroscopic and photometric observation of a long-duration superflare on the young solar-type star EK Draconis (50-120 Myr age) with the Seimei telescope and $Transiting$ $Exoplanet$ $Survey$ $Satellite$ ($TESS$). The flare energy 2.6$\times$10$^{34}$ erg and white-light flare duration 2.2 hr are much larger than those of the largest solar flares, and this is the largest superflare on a…
The \ion{Fe}{i} lines observed by the Hinode/SOT spectropolarimeter were always seen in absorption, apart from the extreme solar limb. Here we analyse a unique dataset capturing these lines in emission during a solar white-light flare. We analyse the temperature stratification in the solar photosphere during a white-light flare and compare it with the post-white-light flare state. We used two scans of the Hinode/SOT spectropolarimeter to infer, by means of the LTE inversion code Stokes Inversion based on Response function (SIR), the physical properties in the solar photosphere during and after…
Using the potential of two unprecedented missions, STEREO and RHESSI, we study three well observed fast CMEs that occurred close to the limb together with their associated high energy flare emissions in terms of RHESSI HXR spectra and flux evolution. From STEREO/EUVI and STEREO/COR1 data the full CME kinematics of the impulsive acceleration phase up to 4 Rs is measured with a high time cadence of less equal 2.5 min. For deriving CME velocity and acceleration we apply and test a new algorithm based on regularization methods. The CME maximum acceleration is achieved at heights h < 0.4 Rs, the pe…
