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Post Info TOPIC: Sun 29.03.14
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Sunspot 12017
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Title: Observations and Modelling of the Pre-Flare Period of the 29 March 2014 X1 Flare
Author: M. M. Woods, L. K. Harra, S. A.Matthews, D. H. Mackay, S. Dacie, D. M. Long

On the 29 March 2014 NOAA active region (AR) 12017 produced an X1 flare which was simultaneously observed by an unprecedented number of observatories. We have investigated the pre-flare period of this flare from 14:00 UT until 19:00 UT using joint observations made by the Interface Region Imaging Spectrometer (IRIS) and the Hinode Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (EIS). Spectral lines providing coverage of the solar atmosphere from chromosphere to the corona were analysed to investigate pre-flare activity within the AR. The results of the investigation have revealed evidence of strongly blue-shifted plasma flows, with velocities up to 200 km/s, being observed 40 minutes prior to flaring. These flows are located along the filament present in the active region and are both spatially discrete and transient. In order to constrain the possible explanations for this activity, we undertake non-potential magnetic field modelling of the active region. This modelling indicates the existence of a weakly twisted flux rope along the polarity inversion line in the region where a filament and the strong pre-flare flows are observed. We then discuss how these observations relate to the current models of flare triggering. We conclude that the most likely drivers of the observed activity are internal reconnection in the flux rope, early onset of the flare reconnection, or tether cutting reconnection along the filament.

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Blobrana


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RE: Sun 29.03.14
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Title: The fast filament eruption leading to the X-flare on March 29, 2014
Author: Lucia Kleint, Marina Battaglia, Kevin Reardon, Alberto Sainz Dalda, Peter R. Young, Säm Krucker

We investigate the sequence of events leading to the solar X1 flare SOL2014-03-29T17:48. Because of the unprecedented joint observations of an X-flare with the ground-based Dunn Solar Telescope and the spacecraft IRIS, Hinode, RHESSI, STEREO, and SDO, we can sample many solar layers from the photosphere to the corona. A filament eruption was observed above a region of previous flux emergence, which possibly led to a change in magnetic field configuration, causing the X-flare. This was concluded from the timing and location of the hard X-ray emission, which started to increase slightly less than a minute after the filament accelerated. The filament showed Doppler velocities of ~2-5 km s-1 at chromospheric temperatures for at least one hour before the flare occurred, mostly blueshifts, but also redshifts near its footpoints. 15 minutes before the flare, its chromospheric Doppler shifts increased to ~6-10 km s-1 and plasma heating could be observed, before it lifted off with at least 600 km s-1, as seen in IRIS data. Compared to previous studies, this acceleration (~3-5 km s-2) is very fast, while the velocities are in the common range for coronal mass ejections. An interesting feature was a low-lying twisted second filament near the erupting filament, which did not seem to participate in the eruption. After the flare ribbons started on each of the second filament's sides, it seems to have untangled and vanished during the flare. These observations are some of the highest resolution data of an X-class flare to date and reveal some small-scale features yet to be explained.

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Blobrana


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Title: The 2014 March 29 X-flare: sub-arcsecond resolution observations of Fe XXI 1354.1
Author: Peter Young, Hui Tian, Sarah Jaeggli

The Interface Region Imaging Spectrometer (IRIS) is the first solar instrument to observe ~10 MK plasma at subarcsecond spatial resolution through imaging spectroscopy of the Fe XXI 1354.1 forbidden line. IRIS observations of the X1 class flare that occurred on 2014 March 29 at 17:48 UT reveal Fe XXI emission from both the flare ribbons and the post-flare loop arcade. Fe XXI appears at the ribbon locations around 75 seconds after the ribbons appear in the chromospheric continuum, and 1354.1 shows blue-shifts of 100-200 km/s, suggesting hot plasma upflow into the corona. The Fe XXI ribbon emission is compact with a spatial extent of <2", and can extend beyond the chromospheric ribbon locations. Examples are found of both decreasing and increasing blue-shift in the direction away from the ribbon locations, and blue-shifts were present for at least 6 minutes after the flare peak. The post-flare loop arcade, seen in Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) 131 A filtergram images that are dominated by Fe XXI, exhibited bright loop-tops with an asymmetric intensity distribution. The sizes of the loop-tops are resolved by IRIS at > 1", and line widths in the loop-tops are not broader than in the loop-legs suggesting the loop-tops are not sites of enhanced turbulence. Line-of-sight speeds in the loop arcade are typically <10 km/s, and mean non-thermal motions fall from 43 km/s at the flare peak to 26 km/s six minutes later. If the average velocity in the loop arcade is assumed to be at rest, then it implies a new reference wavelength for the Fe XXI line of 1354.106 ± 0.023 A.

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NASA Releases Images of X-class Solar Flare

The sun emitted a significant solar flare, peaking at 1:48 p.m. EDT March 29, 2014, and NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured images of the event. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation.
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