Study of ribbon separation and magnetic reconnection rates in a two-ribbon flare

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-1-2009

Abstract

In this paper, we present a study of the correlation between the speed of flare ribbon separation and the magnetic flux density during the 10 April 2001 solar flare. The study includes the section of the neutral line containing the flare core and its peripheral area. This event shows clear two-ribbon structure and inhomogeneous magnetic fields along the ribbons, so the spatial correlation and distribution of the flare and magnetic parameters can be studied. A weak negative correlation is found between the ribbon separation speed (V r) and the longitudinal magnetic flux density (B z ). This correlation is the weakest around the peak of the flare. Spatially, the correlation is also weakest at the positions of the hard X-ray (HXR) sources. In addition, we estimate the magnetic reconnection rate (electric field strength in the reconnection region E rec) by combining the speed of flare ribbons and the longitudinal magnetic flux density. During flare evolution, the time profiles of the magnetic reconnection rate are similar to that of the ribbon separation speed, and the speeds of ribbon separation are relatively slow in the strong magnetic fields (i.e., V r is negatively correlated with B z ). However, along the flare ribbons, E rec fluctuates in a small range except near the HXR source. A localized enhancement of the reconnection rate corresponds to the position of the HXR source. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Identifier

61649108747 (Scopus)

Publication Title

Solar Physics

External Full Text Location

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-008-9295-4

e-ISSN

1573093X

ISSN

00380938

First Page

271

Last Page

283

Issue

2

Volume

254

Grant

10473016

Fund Ref

National Natural Science Foundation of China

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS