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Flares Unaccompanied by Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections and Solar Proton Events

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Abstract

For a coronal mass ejection (CME) to occur, the magnetic pressure of the overlying layers must be lower than that of the underlying layers, and the corresponding Alfvén velocities must be equal. An interplanetary CME (ICME) must have at least the velocity of a quiet solar wind at the critical point. The maximum possible CME velocity is defined by the local Alfvén velocity. Based on the kinematics, the minimum CME acceleration rate is ~0.01 km/s2 and, accordingly, the maximum time of acceleration is ~6 h. The expected maximum acceleration rate, ~10 km/s2, sets the minimum time of acceleration at >1 min. The subsequent flares unaccompanied by ICMEs and solar proton events are studied: an M2.9 flare on July 6, 2012; an X1.6 flare on October 22, 2014; and an X2.2 flare on September 6, 2017. In all three flares, the energy is released within a region limited by the conditions for radiation generation at a plasma frequency of 1.415 GHz, which corresponds to the minimum electron concentration in it. This imposes a constraint on the magnetic field necessary for the realization of long-duration or fast CME acceleration regimes, >15 G or >200 G, respectively. Moreover, in the studied events, the size of the acceleration region is still not enough for an ICME to occur. Near the Earth, the EPHIN/SOHO observations show an excess over the background electron fluxes of <700 keV on October 22, 2014, and <10 MeV on September 6, 2017, for 20–30 min after the impulsive phase. In these cases, one cannot exclude the possibility of the stochastic acceleration of <10 MeV protons, which have left no traces in the solar atmosphere and have been invisible in interplanetary space.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank the reviewer for carefully reading the manuscript and providing valuable remarks, comments, and suggestions. We are grateful to the participants of ground-based and space experiments, the data of which are available in the public domain and were used in this work (GOES, RSTN, ACS SPI, RHESSI, SOHO EPHIN, and SOHO LASCO).

Funding

The work by I.Yu. Grigor’eva (Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory) was supported by the “Energy Release” program. The work by A.B. Struminskii (Space Research Institute) was supported by the “Plasma” program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Main (Pulkovo) Astronomical Observatory, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia

    I. Yu. Grigor’eva

  2. Space Research Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

    A. B. Struminsky

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  1. I. Yu. Grigor’eva
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Correspondence to I. Yu. Grigor’eva.

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Translated by A. Kobkova

This paper is published as a basis for discussion.

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Grigor’eva, I.Y., Struminsky, A.B. Flares Unaccompanied by Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections and Solar Proton Events. Geomagn. Aeron. 61, 1263–1273 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0016793221080090

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