How Can Solar-C/SOSPIM Contribute to the Understanding of Quasi-Periodic Pulsations in Solar Flares?

Quasi-periodic pulsations (QPPs) refer to nearly-periodic oscillations that are often observed in irradiance time series during solar flares and have also been reported in several stellar flares. In the last years, several statistical studies based on Soft X-ray measurements have reached the conclusion that QPPs are present in most solar flares of class M and above. Still, the mechanism at the origin of QPPs is under debate. Are they caused by waves or periodic fluctuations of the magnetic reconnection driving the flare? Analyzing the characteristics of QPPs and their evolution during the flare could help identifying their origin. However, QPPs sometimes exhibit very different periodicities, and do not always happen during the same phase of the flare. All this could point to the coexistence of QPPs with different origin mechanism, and indicates the need for more observations. In this context, the spectral solar irradiance monitor SOSPIM, that will be part of the JAXA SOLAR C mission and that will complement the EUVST spectrograph measurements, could be a valuable asset. SOSPIM will observe the solar chromosphere and corona in the Lyman-alpha and EUV spectral ranges at high cadence. In this presentation, we review the current knowledge of QPPs and describe what could be the contribution of SOSPIM to push their understanding one step forward.