Fine Structure in Solar Flares
Abstract
We present observations of several large two-ribbon flares observed with both the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) and the soft X-ray telescope on Yohkoh. The high spatial resolution TRACE observations show that solar flare plasma is generally not confined to a single loop or even a few isolated loops but to a multitude of fine coronal structures. These observations also suggest that the high-temperature flare plasma generally appears diffuse while the cooler (<~2 MK) postflare plasma is looplike. We conjecture that the diffuse appearance of the high-temperature flare emission seen with TRACE is due to a combination of the emission measure structure of these flares and the instrumental temperature response and does not reflect fundamental differences in plasma morphology at the different temperatures.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- June 2000
- DOI:
- 10.1086/312734
- Bibcode:
- 2000ApJ...536L.105W
- Keywords:
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- Sun: Corona;
- Sun: Flares