Studies of microflares and C5.2 flare of 27 September 1998

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-1999

Abstract

On 27 September 1998, Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) and Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) coordinated observations from 16:00 to 19:00 UT to study properties of microflares in AR NOAA No. 8340. Fortuitously, a C5.2 flare occurred at 16:30 UT in this active region. Hα and magnetograph movies were obtained at BBSO; C IV 1550 Å, Fe IX 171 Å, and Fe XII 195 Å movies were obtained by TRACE; both with a cadence about 1 min. In this paper, we concentrate on the study of magnetic properties of 70 C IV microflares, as well as their relationship to the C5.2 flare. We obtained the following results: (1) We found two kinds of microflares: microflares of transient brightenings with a time scale of 1 to 5 min (impulsive events) and microflares lasting half an hour or longer (persistent events). Ninety percent of the microflares are impulsive events. Most of the event in this category are associated with well defined magnetic neutral lines, but some are found in non-neutral line areas. All of seven persistent events are found at parasitic magnetic configurations with inclusions of small magnetic flux within dominant magnetic flux of opposite polarity. (2) More than a third of the impulsive microflares occurred near the C5.2 flare site indicating that a local instability is responsible for both the C5.2 flare and microflares. This indirectly supports the avalanche theory of flare energy release, which implies that a big flare may be spatially associated with many small flares.

Identifier

0033267025 (Scopus)

Publication Title

Solar Physics

External Full Text Location

https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005288217459

ISSN

00380938

First Page

365

Last Page

376

Issue

2

Volume

188

Grant

ATM-9628862

Fund Ref

National Science Foundation

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