Magnetic Field Patterns In Major Flares And Flare Forecasting
Abstract
Solar flares are powered by magnetic reconnection in the solar atmosphere. The processes by which the energy that is released in these flares is injected into the solar atmosphere continue to be debated and researched. Ensemble studies of hundreds of major solar flares that have been observed over the years with instruments like SOHO and TRACE suggest that much of that free energy is injected in the form of electrical currents that emerge from within the Sun. Detailed studies of high-resolution vector magnetograms observed by, e.g., Hinode's Solar Optical Telescope, support that finding. This talk will review these and other ideas concerning the powering of solar flares, and test our growing understanding against our ability to forecast the times of occurrence and the magnitudes of flares: can we learn to specify flare magnitudes by metrics based on polarity-inversion lines, field gradients and geometry, or other magnetogrambased indicators?
- Publication:
-
37th COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- 2008
- Bibcode:
- 2008cosp...37.2784S