The change of magnetic inclination angles associated with the X3.4 flare on December 13, 2006

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-1-2009

Abstract

Recent studies showed a consistent pattern of changes in the sunspot structure associated with major flares: part of the peripheral penumbral regions vanishes during flares, and meanwhile, the umbral cores and/or inner penumbral regions are darkened. To understand the underlying physics of these observations, we compare the magnetic inclination angle in the decayed peripheral and the enhanced inner penumbral regions before and after the 4B/X3.4 flare of 2006 December 13 by using the high-resolution vector magnetograms from Hinode. We find that the mean inclination angle in the decayed penumbra increases after the flare while that in the enhanced penumbra near flaring neutral line decreases. The result confirms the previous idea that two components of a δ sunspot become connected after flares. As a result of new connection, peripheral penumbral fields change from a more inclined to a more vertical configuration and transverse fields in umbral core and inner penumbral regions increase substantially (Liu et al. 2005). The flare-associated changes of Doppler width as well as other parameters (the transverse field strength, continuum intensity and filling factor) are also presented. © 2009 Science in China Press and Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Identifier

70350511870 (Scopus)

Publication Title

Science in China Series G Physics Mechanics and Astronomy

External Full Text Location

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-009-0238-3

e-ISSN

18622844

ISSN

16721799

First Page

1702

Last Page

1706

Issue

11

Volume

52

Grant

PP/D002907/1

Fund Ref

Science and Technology Facilities Council

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