The Acceleration and Confinement of Energetic Electrons by a Termination Shock in a Magnetic Trap: An Explanation for Nonthermal Loop-top Sources during Solar Flares
Xiangliang Kong, Fan Guo, Chengcai Shen, Bin Chen, Yao Chen, Sophie Musset, Lindsay Glesener, Peera Pongkitiwanichakul, Joe Giacalone
Nonthermal loop-top sources in solar flares are the most prominent observational signature that suggests energy release and particle acceleration in the solar corona. Although several scenarios for particle acceleration have been proposed, the origin of the loop-top sources remains unclear. Here we present a model that combines a large-scale magnetohydrodynamic simulation of a two-ribbon flare with a particle acceleration and transport model for investigating electron acceleration by a fast-mode termination shock at the looptop. Our model provides spatially resolved electron distribution that evolves in response to the dynamic flare geometry. We find a concave-downward magnetic structure located below the flare termination shock, induced by the fast reconnection downflows. It acts as a magnetic trap to confine the electrons at the looptop for an extended period of time. The electrons are energized significantly as they cross the shock front, and eventually build up a power-law energy spectrum extending to hundreds of keV. We suggest that this particle acceleration and transport scenario driven by a flare termination shock is a viable interpretation for the observed nonthermal loop-top sources.
The pickup protons originate as a result of the ionization of hydrogen atoms in the supersonic solar wind, forming the suprathermal component of protons in the heliosphere. While picked by the heliospheric magnetic field and convected into the heliosheath, the pickup protons may suffer the stochastic acceleration by the solar wind turbulence in the region from the Sun up to the heliospheric termination shock, where they can also experience the shock-drift acceleration or the reflection from the cross-shock potential. These processes create a high-energy "tail" in the pickup ion energy distribu…
In solar flares, energy is released impulsively and is partly converted into thermal energy of hot plasmas and kinetic energy of accelerated nonthermal particles. Despite numerous efforts, no consensus on quantifying this energy balance has yet been reached. We aim to understand the reasons for the contradicting results on energy partition obtained by various recent studies. We considered five recent studies that address the thermal-nonthermal energy partition in solar flares. Their results are reviewed, and their methods are compared and discussed in detail. The main uncertainties in deriving…
One of the key problems in solar flare physics is the determination of the low-energy cut-off; the value that determines the energy of nonthermal electrons and hence flare energetics. We discuss different approaches to determine the low-energy cut-off in the spectrum of accelerated electrons: (i) the total electron number model, (ii) the time-of-flight model (based on the equivalence of the time-of-flight and the collisional deflection time); (iii) the warm target model of Kontar et al.~(2015), and (iv) the model of the spectral cross-over between thermal and nonthermal components. We find tha…
This study entails the third part of a global flare energetics project, in which Ramaty High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) data of 191 M and X-class flare events from the first 3.5 yrs of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) mission are analyzed. We fit a thermal and a nonthermal component to RHESSI spectra, yielding the temperature of the differential emission measure (DEM) tail, the nonthermal power law slope and flux, and the thermal/nonthermal cross-over energy $e_{\mathrm{co}}$. From these parameters we calculate the total nonthermal energy $E_{\mathrm{nt}}$ in electrons with…
Observations of radio noise storms can act as sensitive probes of nonthermal electrons produced in small acceleration events in the solar corona. We use data from noise storm episodes observed jointly by the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) and the Nancay Radioheliograph (NRH) to study characteristics of the nonthermal electrons involved in the emission. We find that the electrons carry $10^{21}$ to $10^{24}$ erg/s, and that the energy contained in the electrons producing a representative noise storm burst ranges from $10^{20}$ to $10^{23}$ ergs. These results are a direct probe of the e…
We investigated the relationship between the spectral structures of type II solar radio bursts in the hectometric and kilometric wavelength ranges and solar energetic particles (SEPs). To examine the statistical relationship between type II bursts and SEPs, we selected 26 coronal mass ejection (CME) events with similar characteristics (e.g., initial speed, angular width, and location) observed by the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO), regardless of the characteristics of the corresponding type II bursts and the SEP flux. Then, we compared associated type II bursts observed by t…
In this study we synthesize the results of four previous studies on the global energetics of solar flares and associated coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which include magnetic, thermal, nonthermal, and CME energies in 399 solar M and X-class flare events observed during the first 3.5 years of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) mission. Our findings are: (1) The sum of the mean nonthermal energy of flare-accelerated particles ($E_{\mathrm{nt}}$), the energy of direct heating ($E_{\mathrm{dir}}$), and the energy in coronal mass ejections ($E_{\mathrm{CME}}$), which are the primary energy dissip…
We report the observation of non-stationary Quasi-Periodic Pulsations (QPPs) in high-energy particles during the impulsive phase of an X4.8 flare on 2002 July 23 (SOL2002-07-23T00:35). The X4.8 flare was simultaneously measured by the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager, Nobeyama Radio Polarimeters, and Nobeyama Radioheliograph. The quasi-period of about 50 s, determined by the wavelet transform, is detected in the Gamma-ray line emission. Using the same method, a quasi-period of about 90 s is found in Gamma-ray continuum, hard X-ray (HXR) and radio emissions during almost the…
To test the standard flare model (CSHKP-model), we measured the magnetic-flux change rate in five flare events of different GOES classes using chromospheric/photospheric observations and compared its progression with observed nonthermal flare emission. We calculated the cumulated positive and negative magnetic flux participating in the reconnection process, as well as the total reconnection flux. Finally, we investigated the relations between the total reconnection flux, the GOES class of the events, and the linear velocity of the flare-associated CMEs. Using high-cadence H-alpha and TRACE 160…
Solar flares - the most powerful explosions in the solar system - are also efficient particle accelerators, capable of energizing a large number of charged particles to relativistic speeds. A termination shock is often invoked in the standard model of solar flares as a possible driver for particle acceleration, yet its existence and role have remained controversial. We present observations of a solar flare termination shock and trace its morphology and dynamics using high-cadence radio imaging spectroscopy. We show that a disruption of the shock coincides with an abrupt reduction of the energe…
One of the most important products of solar flares are nonthermal energetic particles which may carry up to 50\% energy releasing in the flaring processes. In radio observations, nonthermal particles generally manifest as spectral fine structures with fast frequency drifting rates, named as solar fast drifting radio bursts (FDRBs). This work demonstrated three types of FDRBs, including type III pair bursts, narrow band stochastic spike bursts following the type III bursts and spike-like bursts superimposed on type II burst in an X1.3 flare on 2014 April 25. We find that although all of them ha…
The acceleration and transport of energetic electrons during solar flares is one of the outstanding topics in solar physics. Recent X-ray and radio imaging and spectroscopy observations have provided diagnostics of the distribution of nonthermal electrons and suggested that, in certain flare events, electrons are primarily accelerated in the loop-top and likely experience trapping and/or scattering effects. By combining the focused particle transport equation with magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of solar flares, we present a macroscopic particle model that naturally incorporates electron…
We investigate the acceleration of charged particles (both electrons and protons) at collisionless shocks predicted to exist in the vicinity of solar flares. The existence of standing termination shocks has been examined by flare models and numerical simulations e.g., Shibata,Forbes. We study electron energization by numerically integrating the equations of motion of a large number of test-particle electrons in the time-dependent two-dimensional electric and magnetic fields generated from hybrid simulations (kinetic ions and fluid electron) using parameters typical of the solar flare plasma en…
The relaxation of field-line tension during magnetic reconnection gives rise to a universal Fermi acceleration process involving the curvature drift of particles. However, the efficiency of this mechanism is limited by the trapping of energetic particles within flux-ropes. Using 3D fully kinetic simulations, we demonstrate that the flux-rope kink instability leads to strong field-line chaos in weak-guide-field regimes where the Fermi mechanism is most efficient, thus allowing particles to transport out of flux-ropes and undergo further acceleration. As a consequence, both ions and electrons de…
Solar flare termination shocks have been suggested as one of the viable mechanisms for accelerating electrons and ions to high energies. Observational evidence of such shocks, however, remains rare. Using radio dynamic spectroscopic imaging of a long-duration C1.9 flare obtained by the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), Chen et al. (2015) suggested that a type of coherent radio bursts, referred to as "stochastic spike bursts," were radio signatures of nonthermal electrons interacting with myriad density fluctuations at the front of a flare termination shock. Here we report another stochast…
Nonthermal sources located above bright flare arcades, referred to as the "above-the-loop-top" sources, have been often suggested as the primary electron acceleration site in major solar flares. The X8.2 limb flare on 2017 September 10 features such an above-the-loop-top source, which was observed in both microwaves and hard X-rays (HXRs) by the Expanded Owens Valley Solar Array (EOVSA) and the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI), respectively. By combining the microwave and HXR imaging spectroscopy observations with multi-filter extreme ultraviolet and soft X-ray ima…
Non-potential magnetic energy promptly released in solar flares is converted to other forms of energy. This may include nonthermal energy of flare-accelerated particles, thermal energy of heated flaring plasma, and kinetic energy of eruptions, jets, up/down flows, and stochastic (turbulent) plasma motions. The processes or parameters governing partitioning of the released energy between these components is an open question. How these components are distributed between distinct flaring loops and what controls these spatial distributions is also unclear. Here, based on multi-wavelength data and …
We study the nature of energy release and transfer for two sub-A class solar microflares observed during the second flight of the Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Imager (FOXSI-2) sounding rocket experiment on 2014 December 11. FOXSI is the first solar-dedicated instrument to utilize focusing optics to image the Sun in the hard X-ray (HXR) regime, sensitive to the energy range 4-20 keV. Through spectral analysis of the two microflares using an optically thin isothermal plasma model, we find evidence for plasma heated to temperatures of ~10 MK and emissions measures down to ~$10^{44}~$cm$^{-3}$. Tho…
Context. Since 1996, during periods of low solar activity, the HSTOF instrument onboard the SOHO satellite has been measuring weak fluxes of He atoms of 28-58 keV/n (helium energetic neutral atoms - He ENA). The probable source region is the inner heliosheath. Aims. We aim to understand the emission mechanism of He ENA based on knowledge of heliosheath spatial extent and plasma content resulting from Voyager 1 & 2 measurements in the period after termination shock crossings. Methods. He ENA are generated by charge-exchange neutralization of energetic helium ions on interstellar neutral H and H…
Using centimeter wave and decimeter wave solar radio spectral observations of the flares of November 18, 2003 and September 12, 2004, we have discussed two type II like bursts at the meter waves. The radio bursts show that the ordinary frequency drift from high to low frequencies slows down and stops, and a frequency drift from low to high frequencies appears. An analysis of all data on the corresponding flares provides evidence of formation of quasi standing fast mode shocks (termination shocks, TS). TS are able to generate energetic electrons, responsible for the appearance of new sources of…
Sunquakes are enhanced seismic waves excited in some energetic solar flares. Up to now, their origin has still been controversial. In this Letter, we select and study 20 strong flares in Solar Cycle 24, whose impulse phase is fully captured by the \emph{Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager} (\emph{RHESSI}). For 11 out of 12 sunquake-active flares in our sample, the hard X-ray (HXR) emission shows a good temporal and spatial correlation with the white-light (WL) enhancement and the sunquake. Spectral analysis also reveals a harder photon spectrum that extends to several hundred …
This study entails the fourth part of a global flare energetics project, in which the mass $m_{\mathrm{cme}}$, kinetic energy $E_{\mathrm{kin}}$, and the gravitational potential energy $E_{\mathrm{grav}}$ of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) is measured in 399 M and X-class flare events observed during the first 3.5 yrs of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) mission, using a new method based on the EUV dimming effect. The EUV dimming is modeled in terms of a radial adiabatic expansion process, which is fitted to the observed evolution of the total emission measure of the CME source region. The mo…
A number of double coronal X-ray sources have been observed during solar flares by RHESSI, where the two sources reside at different sides of the inferred reconnection site. However, where and how are these X-ray-emitting electrons accelerated remains unclear. Here we present the first model of the double coronal hard X-ray (HXR) sources, where electrons are accelerated by a pair of termination shocks driven by bi-directional fast reconnection outflows. We model the acceleration and transport of electrons in the flare region by numerically solving the Parker transport equation using velocity a…
We study the behaviour of shocked wind-electrons leaving wind-driving stars after undergoing the outer wind termination shock. As an example, we describe the evolution of the keV-energetic electron distribution function downstream of the heliospheric termination shock. We start from a kinetic transport equation in the bulk frame of the heliosheath plasma flow taking into account shock-induced electron injection, convective changes, cooling processes, and whistler wave-induced energy diffusion. From this equation we proceed to an associated pressure moment of the electron distribution function …
We investigate the spatial distribution of charged particles accelerated by non-relativistic oblique fast collisionless shocks using three-dimensional test-particle simulations. We find that the density of low-energy particles exhibit a localised enhancement at the shock, resembling the "spike" measured at interplanetary shocks. In contrast to previous results based on numerical solutions to the focused transport equation, we find a shock spike for any magnetic obliquity, from quasi-perpendicular to parallel. We compare the pitch-angle distribution with respect to the local magnetic field and …
Ever-increasing multi-frequency imaging of solar observations suggests that solar flares often involve more than one magnetic fluxtube. Some of the fluxtubes are closed, while others can contain open field. The relative proportion of nonthermal electrons among those distinct loops is highly important for understanding the energy release, particle acceleration, and transport. The access of nonthermal electrons to the open field is further important as the open field facilitates the solar energetic particle (SEP) escape from the flaring site, and thus controls the SEP fluxes in the solar system,…
Latest observational reports of solar flares reveal some uncommon features of microwave spectra, such as unusually hard (or even positive) spectra, and/or a super-high peak frequency. For a better understanding of these features, we conduct a parameter study to investigate the effect of broken-power-law spectra of energetic electrons on microwave emission on the basis of gyrosynchrotron mechanism. The electron broken-power-law energy distribution is characterized by three parameters, the break energy ($E_B$), the power-law indices below ($δ_1$) and above ($δ_2$) the break energy. We find that …
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…
HESS J1632-478 is an extended and still unidentified TeV source in the galactic plane. In order to identify the source of the very high energy emission and to constrain its spectral energy distribution, we used a deep observation of the field obtained with XMM-Newton together with data from Molonglo, Spitzer and Fermi to detect counterparts at other wavelengths. The flux density emitted by HESS J1632-478 peaks at very high energies and is more than 20 times weaker at all other wavelengths probed. The source spectrum features two large prominent bumps with the synchrotron emission peaking in th…
On April 23, 2014, the Swift satellite responded to a hard X-ray transient detected by its Burst Alert Telescope, which turned out to be a stellar flare from a nearby, young M dwarf binary DG~CVn. We utilize observations at X-ray, UV, optical, and radio wavelengths to infer the properties of two large flares. The X-ray spectrum of the primary outburst can be described over the 0.3-100 keV bandpass by either a single very high temperature plasma or a nonthermal thick-target bremsstrahlung model, and we rule out the nonthermal model based on energetic grounds. The temperatures were the highest s…
In-situ spacecraft observations recently suggested that the transport of energetic particles accelerated at heliospheric shocks can be anomalous, i.e. the mean square displacement can grow non-linearly in time. In particular, a new analysis technique has permitted the study of particle transport properties from energetic particle time profiles upstream of interplanetary shocks. Indeed, the time/spatial power laws of the differential intensity upstream of several shocks are indicative of superdiffusion. A complete determination of the key parameters of superdiffusive transport comprises the pow…
Plasma Heating and Energization in Hot-Onset Flare Precursor Events
IREAP, University of Maryland（马里兰大学 IREAP）；Dept. of Physics, Institute for Physical Science and Technology, and the Joint Space Science Institute, University of Maryland（马里兰大学物理系、物理科学与技术研究所和联合空间科学研究所）
An X3.4 solar flare and a fast halo coronal mass ejection (CME) occurred on 2006 December 13, accompanied by a high flux of energetic particles recorded both in near-Earth space and at ground level. Our purpose is to provide evidence of flare acceleration in a major solar energetic particle (SEP) event. We first present observations from ACE/EPAM, GOES, and the Apatity neutron monitor. It is found that the initial particle release time coincides with the flare emission and that the spectrum becomes softer and the anisotropy becomes weaker during particle injection, indicating that the accelera…
The spectrum of gyrosynchrotron emission from solar flares generally peaks in the microwave range. Its optically-thin, high-frequency component, above the spectral peak, is often used for diagnostics of the nonthermal electrons and the magnetic field in the radio source. Under favorable conditions, its low-frequency counterpart brings additional, complementary information about these parameters as well as thermal plasma diagnostics, either through gyrosynchrotron self-absorption, free-free absorption by the thermal plasma, or the suppression of emission through the so-called Razin effect. Howe…
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 hav…
We study the energetics of nonthermal electrons produced in small acceleration episodes in the solar corona. We carried out an extensive survey spanning 2004--2015 and shortlisted 6 impulsive electron events detected at 1 AU that was not associated with large solar flares(GOES soft X-ray class $>$ C1) or with coronal mass ejections. Each of these events had weak, but detectable hard Xray (HXR) emission near the west limb, and were associated with interplanetary type III bursts. In some respects, these events seem like weak counterparts of "cold/tenuous" flares. The energy carried by the HXR pr…
We present a multi-frequency and multi-instrument study of the 20 January 2005 event. We focus mainly on the complex radio signatures and their association with the active phenomena taking place: flares, CMEs, particle acceleration and magnetic restructuring. As a variety of energetic particle accelerators and sources of radio bursts are present, in the flare-ejecta combination, we investigate their relative importance in the progress of this event. The dynamic spectra of {Artemis-IV-Wind/Waves-Hiras with 2000 MHz-20 kHz frequency coverage, were used to track the evolution of the event from th…
A fast-mode shock can form in the front of reconnection outflows and has been suggested as a promising site for particle acceleration in solar flares. Recent development of magnetic reconnection has shown that numerous plasmoids can be produced in a large-scale current layer. Here we investigate the dynamical modulation of electron acceleration in the looptop region when plasmoids intermittently arrive at the shock by combining magnetohydrodynamics simulations with a particle kinetic model. As plasmoids interact with the shock, the looptop region exhibits various compressible structures that m…
Acceleration and transport of high-energy particles and fluid dynamics of atmospheric plasma are interrelated aspects of solar flares. We present here self-consistently combined Fokker-Planck modeling of particles and hydrodynamic simulation of flare plasma. Energetic electrons are modeled with the Stanford unified code of acceleration, transport, and radiation, while plasma is modeled with the NRL flux tube code. We calculated the collisional heating rate from the particle transport code, which is more accurate than those based on approximate analytical solutions. We used a realistic spectrum…
Diffusive shock acceleration at collisionless shocks is thought to be the source of many of the energetic particles observed in space. Large-scale spatial variations of the magnetic field has been shown to be important in understanding observations. The effects are complex, so here we consider a simple, illustrative model. Here, we solve numerically the Parker transport equation for a shock in the presence of large-scale sinusoidal magnetic-field variations. We demonstrate that the familiar planar-shock results can be significantly altered as a consequence of large-scale, meandering magnetic l…
Magnetic reconnection plays a crucial role in powering solar flares, production of energetic particles, and plasma heating. However, where the magnetic reconnections occur, how and where the released magnetic energy is transported, and how it is converted to other forms remain unclear. Here we report recurring bi-directional plasma outflows located within a large-scale plasma sheet observed in extreme ultraviolet emission and scattered white light during the post-impulsive gradual phase of the X8.2 solar flare on 2017 September 10. Each of the bi-directional outflows originates in the plasma s…
We present the study of SOL2015-03-15 M1.2 flare, revealing acceleration of electrons and plasma heating in the sheared twisted magnetic structure in the polarity inversion line (PIL). The scope is to make the analysis of nonthermal electrons dynamics and plasma heating in the highly stressed magnetic loops interacting in the PIL by using X-ray, microwave, ultraviolet, and optical observations. It is found that the most probable scenario for the energy release in the PIL is the tether-cutting magnetic reconnection between the low-lying (3 Mm above the photosphere) magnetic loops within a twist…
The recent observations of the anomalous cosmic ray (ACR) energy spectrum as Voyagers 1 and 2 crossed the heliospheric termination shock have called into question the conventional shock source of these energetic particles. We suggest that the sectored heliospheric magnetic field, which results from the flapping of the heliospheric current sheet, piles up as it approaches the heliopause, narrowing the current sheets that separate the sectors and triggering the onset of collisionless magnetic reconnection. Particle-in-cell simulations reveal that most of the magnetic energy is released and most …
