Using a reconnection-powered loop to model a real flare
Abstract
Magnetic reconnection has long been invoked to explain the supply of energy for solar flares. In spite of this, few models have been able to capture reconnection-driven energy release at the same time they reproduce other flare-related phenomena, such as chromospheric evaporation. We present a one-dimensional numerical model of flux tube retraction following reconnection. Unlike traditional flare loop models, the energy supply here is not a free parameter but comes self-consistently from the post-reconnection retraction. This model depends on 5 free parameters, two of which can be constrained using pre-flare observations. The remaining three parameters can be varied to fit observations of the actual flare. In this case, they are used to the fit the RHESSI hard X-ray spectrum from a flare on 26 Feb 2004. Once done, the model can be used to reproduce observations from other wavelengths, including their time-evolution. We show that our model agrees with the two different soft X-ray light curves observed by GOES, and the time evolutions observed in various hard X-ray bands observed by RHESSI. The model also predicts hard X-ray emission from the top of the flaring loops, in agreement with hard X-ray images made of the same flare - and many others. While such loop-top sources are well known, their theoretical explanation is still debated. The loop-top source in this model arises from a plug of plasma compressed and heated by slow magnetosonic shocks. This plug persists longer than slow shocks are expected to, giving rise to concentrated source, rather than an elongated jet, and producing considerably more emission than previous models predicted.
- Publication:
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AAS/Solar Physics Division Abstracts #47
- Pub Date:
- May 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016SPD....4730203L