Flare differentially rotates sunspot on Sun's surface

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-10-2016

Abstract

Sunspots are concentrations of magnetic field visible on the solar surface (photosphere). It was considered implausible that solar flares, as resulted from magnetic reconnection in the tenuous corona, would cause a direct perturbation of the dense photosphere involving bulk motion. Here we report the sudden flare-induced rotation of a sunspot using the unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution of the 1.6 m New Solar Telescope, supplemented by magnetic data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory. It is clearly observed that the rotation is non-uniform over the sunspot: as the flare ribbon sweeps across, its different portions accelerate (up to ∼50° h -1) at different times corresponding to peaks of flare hard X-ray emission. The rotation may be driven by the surface Lorentz-force change due to the back reaction of coronal magnetic restructuring and is accompanied by a downward Poynting flux. These results have direct consequences for our understanding of energy and momentum transportation in the flare-related phenomena.

Identifier

84990909857 (Scopus)

Publication Title

Nature Communications

External Full Text Location

https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13104

e-ISSN

20411723

Volume

7

Grant

R1A2A1A 03670387

Fund Ref

Ministry of Education

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