D3.3
Lead Beneficiary: KU Leuven
Beneficiaries involved: UNIGRAZ, ROB, OBS Paris, SRC-PAS, UGOE, Hvar, LPI
Due Date: 24 months
Goal
Major concern of D3.3 is research of the initiation of flares and CMEs. We aim at improving the understanding of physical mechanisms of energy release in the photospheric and low coronal source-regions, which lead to CMEs and flares. The interrelationships of the flares and CMEs are invesigated, as well as the interaction of CMEs with the global corona.
Progress so far
KU Leuven (Giovanni Lapenta, Lapo Bettarini, Alexander Soenen, Francesco Zuccarello and Stefaan Poedts)
- Homologous CMEs are found to be obtained from a breakout configuration by increasing the shear region to just outside the central arcade.
- More realistic Solarmax scenarios with multiple streamers involved is modelled, where the interaction of a CME with another streamer can produce secondary eruptions.
- Modeling activity focused on current-sheet dynamics and non-steady reconnection within the solar environment as well as on the properties and dynamics of the slow-fast solar wind is presented in the article by L. Bettarini and G. Lapenta, which is submitted to ApJ.
- Setting-up of new numerical strategies to study the cross-scale dynamics of space and solar plasma is in progress.
- Access to the SPENVIS online system is acquired and its use is studied, in order to utilize it for investigating the effect of radiation on satellites.
Hvar (Bojan Vrsnak, Tomislav Zic and non-Soteria member Darije Maricic)
- Multi-wavelength observations of the acceleration phase of 18 CMEs is analysed. The study of relative kinematics of the CME leading edge and the associated eruptive prominence shows that in 75% cases they are synchronised. The results are presented in Maricic et al, Relative kinematics of the leading edge and the prominence in coronal mass ejection, which is submitted to SoPhy.
- Analitical MHD model for studying the formation of the coronal shock-wave, after an impulsive source-region expansion is developed. It is used for studying the propagation of the shock-wave through a decreasing Alfven-velocity environment. In the further step, a numerical study in collaboration with C. Jacobs from KU Leuven is foreseen.
SRC-PAS
The SRC-PAS Team has been busy with collecting and archiving the first-light data from the SphinX spectrophotometer, aboard Coronas-Photon. During first 50 days of active operation, the instrument collected ~30 GB of data, including small flares on March 26th. The data analysis of 30 Aug. 2002 and 14 Nov. 2002 flares is in progress. Results of complex analysis of selected flares including HD simulations of interaction between the non-thermal and thermal plasma components have been accepted for publication (A&A) with the SOTERIA acknowledged.
Summary by individual contributors:
- Jaroslaw Bakala: On line creation of the SphinX flare catalogue, containing already ~60 events.
- Szymon Gburek: Development of the software component for automatic SphinX data downloading from Russian servers.
- Anna Kepa: Reduction of multispacecraft observations of 30 Aug. 2002 flare event.
- Zbigniew Kordylewski: Development of orbital algorithms for the Coronas-Photon Mission.
- Miroslaw Kowalinski: On-line reformatting of SphinX telemetry data stream and respective algorithms refinement.
- Piotr Podgorski: Analysis of thermal environment within the SphinX instrument during early operations.
- Marek Siarkowski: HD modelling of plasma response to heating through non-thermal beams using NRL HD codes- comparison with observations from GOES & SXT. Results presented in the publication accepted for A&A: Relationship between non-thermal electron energy spectra and GOES class, by Falewicz Rudawy and Siarkowski. SOTERIA grant acknowledged.
- Barbara Sylwester: RESIK data reduction and Multitemperature Analysis of 14 Nov 2002 flare.
-Janusz Sylwester: Development of the algorithms for SphinX data visualization and analysis.
-Witold Trzebinski: Laboratory simulation of SphinX electronics behavior under harsh thermal environment conditions.
UNIGRAZ (Manuela Temmer and Astrid Veronig)
We are studying the CME-flare feedback relation by combining STEREO (EUVI, COR1) and RHESSI HXR observations. To find suitable events we did a data-base search, from which (so far) four events were selected. The studies on these events observed during the years 2007 and 2008 are ongoing.
LPI (Vladimir Slemzin, Sergey Kuzin, Andrey Pertsov, Alexander Ignatiev)
On January 30, 2009 LPI has successively started a new experiment to study the solar activity with the TESIS EUV telescope/spectroheliograph. First high quality solar images in the Fe 132, Fe 171 and He 304 A bands obtained with this instrument were demonstrated at the Lapland meeting. The TESIS instrument has high spatial and temporal resolution which is very important for studies of flares and CMEs. After the period of commissioning and calibrations the data will be available for theoretical analysis and modeling.
OBS Paris (Lidia van Driel-Gesztelyi, Tibor Török)
We have analyzed the pre-eruption filament evolution and activity for the 19 May 2007 CME (one of the selected events for SOTERIA). The filament, which erupted in the CME was formed over two days by merging of an active-region and a quiescent filaments. Mergence was achieved through several episodes of magnetic reconnection. We also analyzed the eruption itself using data from the twin STEREO spacecraft. The 3-D reconstruction of the eruption shows that the active-region part of the filament erupted with greater speed than the quiescent part, making the eruption asymmetric. Two papers have been submitted to Solar Physics, one is published in May 2009 in the special STEREO issue, the other is in press. Both acknowledge the SOTERIA grant.
UGOE (Volker Bothmer, Bin Gui, Giuseppe Nisticò, Gaetano Zimbardo, Spiros Patsourakos, Ansgar Reiners)
More than 80 CMEs have been identified in STEREO data since launch. For these events the low coronal and photospheric source regions are searched in STEREO/SECCHI/EUVI, SOHO/EIT, and SOHO/MDI observations and associated flare activity is recognized. These events are further studied to analyse the kinematics of CMEs and their effects/interactions on/with the ambient corona. The analysis also addresses the question whether CMEs also occur on small scales.
ROB (Dan Seaton)
In the absence of data from PROBA2 (now scheduled for launch in Sept. '09) we have worked on the development of an analytical model of a reconnecting current sheet (based on Dan Seaton's dissertation research). This model is useful in developing understanding of the reconnection mechanism that is responsible for converting stored magnetic energy into heat and kinetic energy during solar eruptions. The model makes several specific predictions about the properties of reconnecting current sheets during flares and CMEs that may be observable using SWAP and other instruments such as TESIS, and we are developing observing routines based on these predictions for use after PROBA2 launches.
