Abstract
Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental mechanism through which energy stored in magnetic fields is released explosively on a massive scale, they could be presented as eruptive or confined flares, depending on their association with coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Several previous works have concluded that there is no correlation between flare duration and flare class, however, their sample sizes are skewed towards B and C classes; they hardly represent the higher classes. Therefore, we studied a sample without extreme events in order to determine the correlation between flare duration and flare type (confined and eruptive). We examined 33 flares with classes between M5 to X5 within 45° of the disk centres, using data from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) and the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI). We find that the linear correlation between flare class against flare duration by full width half maximum (FWHM) in general is weak (\(r = 0.19\)); however, confined flares have a significant correlation (\(r = 0.58\)) compared to eruptive types (\(r = 0.08\)). Also, the confined M class flares’ average duration is less than half of the eruptive flares. Similarly, confined flares have a higher correlation (\(r = 0.89\)) than eruptive flares (\(r = 0.60\)) between flare classes against magnetic reconnection flux. In this work, a balanced sample size between flare types is an important strategy for obtaining a reliable quantitative comparison.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aarnio, A.N., Stassun, K.G., Hughes, W.J., McGregor, S.L.: Sol. Phys. 268(1), 195 (2011)
Andrews, M.D.: Sol. Phys. 218(1), 261 (2003)
Antiochos, S.K., DeVore, C.R., Klimchuk, J.A.: Astrophys. J. 510(1), 485 (1999)
Baumgartner, C., Thalmann, J.K., Veronig, A.M.: Astrophys. J. 853(2), 105 (2018)
Cargill, P.J., Mariska, J.T., Antiochos, S.K.: Astrophys. J. 439, 1034 (1995)
SunPy Community, T., et al.: Comput. Sci. Discov. 8(1), 014009 (2015)
D’Huys, E., Seaton, D.B., Poedts, S., Berghmans, D.: Astrophys. J. 795(1), 49 (2014)
Emslie, A.G., Dennis, B.R., Holman, G.D., Hudson, H.S.: J. Geophys. Res. 110(A11), A11103 (2005)
Fletcher, L., et al.: Space Sci. Rev. 159(1), 19 (2011)
Forbes, T.G.: J. Geophys. Res. Space Phys. 105(A10), 23153 (2000)
Forbes, T.G., Priest, E.R.: Sol. Phys. 94(2), 315 (1984)
Forbes, T.G., et al.: Space Sci. Rev. 123(1), 251 (2006)
Gallagher, P.T., Lawrence, G.R., Dennis, B.R.: Astrophys. J. 588, L53 (2003)
Gopalswamy, N., Yashiro, S., Kaiser, M.L., Howard, R.A., Bougeret, J.-L.: J. Geophys. Res. Space Phys. 106(A12), 29219 (2001)
Gosling, J.T., Hildner, E., MacQueen, R.M., Munro, R.H., Poland, A.I., Ross, C.L.: Sol. Phys. 48(2), 389 (1976)
Green, L.M., Harra, L.K., Matthews, S.A., Culhane, J.L.: Sol. Phys. 200, 189 (2001)
Green, L.M., Török, T., Vršnak, B., Manchester, W., Veronig, A.: Space Sci. Rev. 214, 46 (2018)
Harra, L.K., et al.: Sol. Phys. 291(6), 1761 (2016)
Hudson, H.S.: Space Sci. Rev. 158(1), 5 (2011)
Hundhausen, A.J., Stanger, A.L., Serbicki, S.A.: Proc. Third SOHO Workshop ESA SP-373, 409 (1994)
Joye, W.A., Mandel, E.: Astron. Data Anal. Software Systems XII. ASP Conf. Series, vol. 295, p. 489 (2003)
Kay, H.R.M., Harra, L.K., Matthews, S.A., Culhane, J.L., Green, L.M.: Astron. Astrophys. 400(2), 779 (2003)
Kazachenko, M.D., Canfield, R.C., Longcope, D.W., Qiu, J.: Sol. Phys. 277(1), 165 (2012)
Kazachenko, M.D., Lynch, B.J., Welsch, B.T., Sun, X.: Astrophys. J. 845(1), 49 (2017)
Kazachenko, M.D., Albelo-Corchado, M.F., Tamburri, C.A., Welsch, B.T.: Sol. Phys. 297, 59 (2022)
Kliem, B., Török, T.: Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 255002 (2006)
Lemen, J.R., et al.: Sol. Phys. 275(1), 17 (2012)
Li, T., Hou, Y., Yang, S., Zhang, J., Liu, L., Veronig, A.M.: Astrophys. J. 900, 128 (2020)
Lin, J., Soon, W., Baliunas, S.L.: New Astron. Rev. 47(2), 53 (2003)
Lynch, B.J., Antiochos, S.K., DeVore, C.R., Luhmann, J.G., Zurbuchen, T.H.: Astrophys. J. 683, 1192 (2008)
Manchester, W., Kilpua, E.K.J., Liu, Y.D., Lugaz, N., Riley, P., Török, T., Vršnak, B.: Space Sci. Rev. 212, 1159 (2017)
Miklenic, C.H., Veronig, A.M., Vršnak, B.: Astron. Astrophys. 499(3), 893 (2009)
Mitra, P.K., Joshi, B., Veronig, A.M., Chandra, R., Dissauer, K., Wiegelmann, T.: Astrophys. J. 900, 23 (2020)
Priest, E.R., Forbes, T.G.: Astron. Astrophys. Rev. 10(4), 313 (2002)
Qiu, J., Liu, W., Hill, N., Kazachenko, M.: Astrophys. J. 725, 319 (2010)
Reep, J.W., Knizhnik, K.J.: Astrophys. J. 874(2), 157 (2019)
Reep, J.W., Toriumi, S.: Astrophys. J. 851, 4 (2017)
Robbrecht, E., Patsourakos, S., Vourlidas, A.: Astrophys. J. 701(1), 283 (2009)
Romano, P., et al.: Astron. Astrophys. 582, A55 (2015)
Schou, J., et al.: Sol. Phys. 275(1), 229 (2012)
Shibata, K., Magara, T.: Living Rev. Sol. Phys. 8(1), 6 (2011)
Sun, X., et al.: Astrophys. J. 804(2), L28 (2015)
Švestka, Z., Cliver, E.W.: Eruptive Solar Flares, vol. 1. Springer, Berlin (1992)
Thalmann, J.K., Su, Y., Temmer, M., Veronig, A.M.: Astrophys. J. 801(2), L23 (2015)
Toriumi, S., Schrijver, C.J., Harra, L.K., Hudson, H., Nagashima, K.: Astrophys. J. 834(1), 56 (2017)
Tschernitz, J., Veronig, A.M., Thalmann, J.K., Hinterreiter, J., Pötzi, W.: Astrophys. J. 853(1), 41 (2018)
Veronig, A.M., Polanec, W.: Sol. Phys. 290(10), 2923 (2015)
Veronig, A., Temmer, M., Hanslmeier, A., Otruba, W., Messerotti, M.: Astron. Astrophys. 382(3), 1070 (2002a)
Veronig, A., Vršnak, B., Dennis, B.R., Temmer, M., Hanslmeier, A., Magdalenić, J.: Astron. Astrophys. 392(2), 2 (2002b)
Wagner, W.J.: Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 22(1), 267 (1984)
Wang, Y., Zhang, J.: Astrophys. J. 665(2), 1428 (2007)
Webb, D.F., Howard, T.A.: Living Rev. Sol. Phys. 9, 3 (2012)
Wiegelmann, T., Thalmann, J.K., Solanki, S.K.: Astron. Astrophys. Rev. 22, 78 (2014)
Yashiro, S., Gopalswamy, N.: Proc. IAU 257, 233 (2009)
Yashiro, S., Akiyama, S., Gopalswamy, N., Howard, R.A.: Astrophys. J. 650(2), L143 (2006)
Youssef, M.: NRIAG J. Astron. Geophys. 1(2), 172 (2012)
Zhang, P., Liu, S.-M.: Chin. Astron. Astrophys. 39(3), 330 (2015)
Acknowledgements
The author would like to express their gratitude to Prof. Dr. Astrid Veronig for the helpful guidance. This research has made use of SAOImageDS9, developed by Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. The SDO data used are courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA and HMI science teams. The authors appreciate NOAA for making the GOES SXR archive data available.
Funding
JYHS acknowledges financial support from the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) by the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education with reference code FRGS/1/2023/STG07/USM/02/14. KB acknowledges support by the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education through the MyPhD programme with account number KPT(B) 730410075801.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Both KB and JYHS contributed to the final version of the manuscript. JYHS supervised the project. NMT verified the analytical methods. AHAA developed the theoretical framework. All authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript.
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Appendix: GOES X-ray flux plots and magnetic reconnection flux accumulation trend
Appendix: GOES X-ray flux plots and magnetic reconnection flux accumulation trend
Display of the GOES X-Ray fluxes and magnetic reconnection flux trends for each event used in this study.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Balamuralikrishna, K., Soo, J.Y.H., Mohamed Tahrin, N. et al. Characterising solar magnetic reconnection in confined and eruptive flares. Astrophys Space Sci 368, 94 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-023-04251-w
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-023-04251-w