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Energetics of X-Class Flares at the Minima of 22, 23, and 24 Solar Cycles

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Abstract—

Quite often powerful flares occur during a decrease of solar activity. In this work, we make an attempt to consider X-class flares at the minima of solar activity cycles as a separate group of events. Out of nine X-class flares we selected three such events that occurred at the minima of solar cycles 22–24: SOL1996-07-09T-09:09 (X2.6), SOL2006-12-13T-10:26 (X3.4), and SOL2017-09-06T-11:53 (X9.3); they were well observed by various instruments. All three selected flares are characterized by significant gamma-ray emission, which indicates ion acceleration during the impulsive phase. For the selected events, we estimated the energetics and distribution of the released free energy of the magnetic field between different flare components, including thermal energy and the energy of accelerated electrons and ions. No preferred energy-release channels have been identified for the considered flares at the solar activity minima. It turned out that the amount of magnetic free energy is several times higher than the amount of thermal energy and the energy of accelerated electrons and ions; the possible causes of this imbalance are discussed.

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Funding

G.G. Motorina and A.L. Lysenko acknowledge the support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project no. mol_a 18-32-00439. G.G. Motorina also acknowledges the project RVO:67985815 and the project LM2015067: EU-ARC.CZ—National Research Infrastructure by Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic. G.D. Fleishman acknowledges the support of NSF grant AGS-1 817 277 and NASA grants 80NSSC18K0667, 80NSSC19K0068, 80NSSC18K1128, and 80NSSC20K0627. S.A. Anfinogentov acknowledges the support of the Basic Research Program II.16 and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project no. 19-52-53 045.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Central Astronomical Observatory at Pulkovo of Russian Academy of Sciences, 196140, St. Petersburg, Russia

    G. G. Motorina

  2. Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Ondřejov, Czech Republic

    G. G. Motorina

  3. Ioffe Institute, Polytekhnicheskaya, 26, 194021, St. Petersburg, Russia

    A. L. Lysenko

  4. Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics SB RAS, Lermontov St. 126, 664033, Irkutsk, Russia

    S. A. Anfinogentov

  5. Center for Solar–Terrestrial Research, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights, NJ 07102-1982, Newark, USA

    G. D. Fleishman

Authors
  1. G. G. Motorina
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  2. A. L. Lysenko
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  3. S. A. Anfinogentov
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  4. G. D. Fleishman
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Correspondence to G. G. Motorina, A. L. Lysenko, S. A. Anfinogentov or G. D. Fleishman.

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Translated by O. Pismenov

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Motorina, G.G., Lysenko, A.L., Anfinogentov, S.A. et al. Energetics of X-Class Flares at the Minima of 22, 23, and 24 Solar Cycles. Geomagn. Aeron. 60, 929–935 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1134/S001679322007018X

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S001679322007018X

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