X-Ray Fine Structure of a Limb Solar Flare Revealed by Insight-HXMT, RHESSI and Fermi
Abstract
We conduct a detailed analysis of an M1.3 limb flare occurring on 2017 July 3, which have the X-ray observations recorded by multiple hard X-ray telescopes, including Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (Insight-HXMT), Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI), and the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi). Joint analysis has also used the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) imaging data from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) aboard the Solar Dynamic Observatory. The hard X-ray spectral and imaging evolution suggest a lower corona source, and the non-thermal broken power law distribution has a rather low break energy ~15 keV. The EUV imaging shows a rather stable plasma configuration before the hard X-ray peak phase, and accompanied by a filament eruption during the hard X-ray flare peak phase. Hard X-ray image reconstruction from RHESSI data only shows one foot point source. We also determined the DEM for the peak phase by SDO/AIA data. The integrated EM beyond 10 MK at foot point onset after the peak phase, while the >10 MK source around reconnection site began to fade. The evolution of EM and hard X-ray source supports lower corona plasma heating after non-thermal energy dissipation. The combination of hard X-ray spectra and images during the limb flare provides the understanding on the interchange of non-thermal and thermal energies, and relation between lower corona heating and the upper corona instability.
- Publication:
-
Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Pub Date:
- May 2022
- DOI:
- 10.1088/1674-4527/ac5958
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2202.12600
- Bibcode:
- 2022RAA....22e5006Z
- Keywords:
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- Sun: flares;
- Sun: corona;
- Sun: X-rays;
- gamma-rays;
- plasmas;
- radiation mechanisms: non-thermal;
- radiation mechanisms: thermal;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 12 pages, 6 figures, Research in Astron. Astrophys. in press