Related papers: Rethinking the solar flare paradigm
Solar flares are defined as outbursts on the surface of the Sun. They occur when energy accumulated in magnetic fields enclosing solar active regions (ARs) is abruptly expelled. Solar flares and associated coronal mass ejections are sources…
Solar energetic events are caused by the release of magnetic energy accumulated in the solar atmosphere. To understand their initiating physical mechanisms, the dynamics of the coronal magnetic fields must be studied. Unfortunately, the…
The energy released during solar flares is believed to be stored in non-potential magnetic fields associated with electric currents flowing in the corona. While no measurements of coronal electric currents are presently available, maps of…
A plethora of solar dynamic events, such as the formation of active regions, the emission of jets and the occurrence of eruptions is often associated to the emergence of magnetic flux from the interior of the Sun to the surface and above.…
Magnetic-field reconnection is believed to play a fundamental role in magnetized plasma systems throughout the Universe1, including planetary magnetospheres, magnetars and accretion disks around black holes. This letter present extreme…
Magnetic reconnection is a universal process that powers explosive energy release events such as solar flares, geomagnetic substorms, and some astrophysical jets. A characteristic feature of magnetic reconnection is the production of fast…
In isolated solar active regions, we find that the waiting times between flares correlate with flare magnitudes as determined by the GOES soft X-ray fluxes. A "build-up and release" scenario (BUR) for magnetic energy storage in the solar…
Sunspots are regions of decreased brightness on the visible surface of the Sun (photosphere) that are associated with strong magnetic fields. They have been found to be locations associated with solar flares, which occur when energy stored…
Shear flows have been prescribed in numerical models of coronal mass ejections and flares for decades as a way of energizing magnetic fields to erupt. While such shear flows have long been observed in the solar atmosphere, until recently,…
Strong solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are prone to originate within and near active regions (ARs) with a high magnetic complexity. Therefore, to better understand the generation mechanism of flares and the resultant CME…
During solar flares a tremendous amount of magnetic energy is released and transported through the Sun's atmosphere and out into the heliosphere. Despite over a century of study, many unresolved questions surrounding solar flares are still…
The physical processes, which drive powerful solar eruptions, play an important role in our understanding of the Sun-Earth connection. In this Special Issue, we firstly discuss how magnetic fields emerge from the solar interior to the solar…
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…
During solar flares, a large flux of energetic electrons propagate from the tops of reconnecting magnetic flux tubes toward the lower atmosphere. Over the course of the electrons' transport, a co-spatial counter-streaming return current is…
We address the problem of how particles that are accelerated by solar flares can escape promptly into the heliosphere, on time scales of an hour or less. Impulsive solar energetic particles (SEP) bursts are generally observed in association…
We present observations of electron energization in magnetic reconnection outflows during the pre-impulsive phase of solar flare SOL2012-07-19T05:58. During a time-interval of about 20 minutes, starting 40 minutes before the onset of the…
Solar flares fall into two types with eruptive ones associated with coronal mass ejection (CME) and confined ones without CME. To explore whether there are pre-flare conditions in terms of magnetic energy and helicity that can effectively…
The solar flare on July 30, 2011 was of a modest X-ray class (M9.3), but it made a strong photospheric impact and produced a "sunquake," observed with the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). In…
Violent solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are magnetic phenomena. However, how magnetic fields reconnecting in the flare differ from non-flaring magnetic fields remains unclear owing to the lack of studies of the flare magnetic…
Three-dimensional magnetic topology of solar flare plays a crucial role in understanding its explosive release of magnetic energy in the corona. However, such three-dimensional coronal magnetic field is still elusive in direct observation.…