ENERGY RELEASE AND INITIATION OF A SUNQUAKE IN A C-CLASS FLARE

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-1-2015

Abstract

We present an analysis of the C7.0 solar flare from 2013 February 17, revealing a strong helioseismic response (sunquake) caused by a compact impact observed with the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) in the low atmosphere. This is the weakest known C-class flare generating a sunquake event. To investigate the possible mechanisms of this event and understand the role of accelerated charged particles and photospheric electric currents, we use data from three space observatories: RHESSI, SDO, and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite. We find that the photospheric flare impact does not spatially correspond to the strongest hard X-ray emission source, but both of these events are parts of the same energy release. Our analysis reveals a close association of the flare energy release with a rapid increase in the electric currents and suggests that the sunquake initiation is unlikely to be caused by the impact of high-energy electrons, but may be associated with rapid current dissipation or a localized impulsive Lorentz force in the lower layers of the solar atmosphere.

Identifier

84936070554 (Scopus)

Publication Title

Astrophysical Journal

External Full Text Location

https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/807/1/102

e-ISSN

15384357

ISSN

0004637X

Issue

1

Volume

807

Grant

NNX14AB70G

Fund Ref

Russian Foundation for Basic Research

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