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Soft X-ray Fluxes of Major Flares Far Behind the Limb as Estimated Using STEREO EUV Images

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Abstract

With increasing solar activity since 2010, many flares from the backside of the Sun have been observed by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUVI) on either of the twin STEREO spacecraft. Our objective is to estimate their X-ray peak fluxes from EUVI data by finding a relation of the EUVI with GOES X-ray fluxes. Because of the presence of the Fe xxiv line at 192 Å, the response of the EUVI 195 Å channel has a secondary broad peak around 15 MK, and its fluxes closely trace X-ray fluxes during the rise phase of flares. If the flare plasma is isothermal, the EUVI flux should be directly proportional to the GOES flux. In reality, the multithermal nature of the flare and other factors complicate the estimation of the X-ray fluxes from EUVI observations. We discuss the uncertainties, by comparing GOES fluxes with the high cadence EUV data from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). We conclude that the EUVI 195 Å data can provide estimates of the X-ray peak fluxes of intense flares (e.g., above M4 in the GOES scale) to small uncertainties. Lastly we show examples of intense flares from regions far behind the limb, some of which show eruptive signatures in AIA images.

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Notes

  1. For SOL identification convention, see Solar Phys. 263, pp. 1 – 2, 2010.

  2. The response of the XRS on GOES-15 became available in March 2013, around the time of the second referee report, but the difference from that of the XRS on GOES-14 seems to be too small to affect this work in a significant way.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been supported by the NASA STEREO mission under NRL Contract No. N00173-02-C-2035, and by the AIA contract NNG04EA00C to LMSAL. We are grateful to the referee for valuable comments that clarified the motivations of this work.

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  1. Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory, A021S, Bldg 252, 3251 Hanover Street, Palo Alto, CA, 94304, USA

    N. V. Nitta, M. J. Aschwanden, P. F. Boerner, S. L. Freeland, J. R. Lemen & J.-P. Wuelser

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  1. N. V. Nitta
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  2. M. J. Aschwanden
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  3. P. F. Boerner
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Correspondence to N. V. Nitta.

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Nitta, N.V., Aschwanden, M.J., Boerner, P.F. et al. Soft X-ray Fluxes of Major Flares Far Behind the Limb as Estimated Using STEREO EUV Images. Sol Phys 288, 241–254 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-013-0307-7

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