Combined Modeling of Acceleration, Transport, and Hydrodynamic Response in Solar Flares. II. Inclusion of Radiative Transfer with RADYN
Abstract
Solar flares involve complex processes that are coupled and span a wide range of temporal, spatial, and energy scales. Modeling such processes self-consistently has been a challenge in the past. Here we present results from simulations that couple particle kinetics with hydrodynamics (HD) of the atmospheric plasma. We combine the Stanford unified Fokker-Planck code that models particle acceleration and transport with the RADYN HD code that models the atmospheric response to collisional heating by accelerated electrons through detailed radiative transfer calculations. We perform simulations using two different electron spectra, one an ad hoc power law and the other predicted by the model of stochastic acceleration by turbulence or plasma waves. Surprisingly, the later model, even with energy flux \ll {10}10 {erg} {{{s}}}-1 {{cm}}-2, can cause “explosive” chromospheric evaporation and drive stronger up- and downflows (and HD shocks). This is partly because our acceleration model, like many others, produces a spectrum consisting of a quasi-thermal component plus a power-law tail. We synthesize emission-line profiles covering different heights in the lower atmosphere, including Hα 6563 Å, He ii 304 Å, Ca ii K 3934 Å, and Si iv 1393 Å. One interesting result is the unusual high temperature (up to a few times 105 K) of the formation site of He ii 304 Å, which is expected owing to photoionization-recombination under flare conditions, compared to those in the quiet Sun dominated by collisional excitation. When compared with observations, our results can constrain the properties of nonthermal electrons and thus the poorly understood particle acceleration mechanism.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- November 2015
- DOI:
- 10.1088/0004-637X/813/2/133
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1505.01549
- Bibcode:
- 2015ApJ...813..133R
- Keywords:
-
- acceleration of particles;
- hydrodynamics;
- line: profiles;
- radiative transfer;
- Sun: chromosphere;
- Sun: flares;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 17 pages, 18 figures. Accepted in ApJ