arXiv subjects

M. D. Ding

Publications and source records attributed to M. D. Ding.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

Thermodynamic Evolution of Solar Flare Supra-arcade Downflows

Solar flares are rapid energy release phenomena that appear as bright ribbons in the chromosphere and high-temperature loops in the corona, respectively. Supra-arcade Downflows (SADs) are plasma voids that first come out above the flare loops and then move quickly towards the flare loop top during the decay phase of the flare. In our work, we study 20 SADs appearing in three flares. By differential emission measure (DEM) analysis, we calculate the DEM weighted average temperature and emission measure (EM) of the front region and the main body of SADs. It is found that the temperatures of the SAD front and body tend to increase during the course of SADs flowing downwards. The relationship between the pressure and temperature fits well with the adiabatic equation for both the SAD front and body, suggesting that the heating of SADs is mainly caused by adiabatic compression. Moreover, we also estimate the velocities of SADs via the Fourier Local Correlation Tracking (FLCT) method and find that increase of the temperature of the SAD front presents a correlation with the decrease of the SAD kinetic energy, while the SAD body does not, implying that the viscous process may also heat the SAD front in spite of a limited role.

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arXiv2021

Data-constrained Magnetohydrodynamic Simulation of a Long Duration Eruptive Flare

We perform a zero-$β$ magnetohydrodynamic simulation for the C7.7 class flare initiated at 01:18 UT on 2011 June 21 using the Message Passing Interface Adaptive Mesh Refinement Versatile Advection Code (MPI-AMRVAC). The initial condition for the simulation involves a flux rope which we realize through the regularized Biot-Savart laws, whose parameters are constrained by observations from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUVI) on the twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO). This data-constrained initial state is then relaxed to a force-free state by the magneto-frictional module in MPI-AMRVAC. The further time-evolving simulation results reproduce the eruption characteristics obtained by SDO/AIA 94 A, 304 A, and STEREO/EUVI 304 A observations fairly well. The simulated flux rope possesses similar eruption direction, height range, and velocities to the observations. Especially, the two phases of slow evolution and fast eruption are reproduced by varying the density distribution in light of the filament material draining process. Our data-constrained simulations also show other advantages, such as a large field of view (about 0.76 solar radii). We study the twist of the magnetic flux rope and the decay index of the overlying field, and find that in this event, both the magnetic strapping force and the magnetic tension force are sufficiently weaker than the magnetic hoop force, thus allowing the successful eruption of the flux rope. We also find that the anomalous resistivity is necessary in keeping the correct morphology of the erupting flux rope.

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arXiv2021

Extreme-ultraviolet Late Phase in Homologous Solar Flares from a Complex Active Region

Recent observations in extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) wavelengths reveal a new late phase in some solar flares, which is seen as a second peak in warm coronal emissions ($\sim3$ MK) several tens of minutes to a few hours after the soft X-ray (SXR) peak. The origin of the EUV late phase (ELP) is explained by either a long-lasting cooling process in the long ELP loops, or a delayed energy ejection into the ELP loops well after the main flare heating. Using the observations with the \emph{Solar Dynamics Observatory} (\emph{SDO}), we investigate the production of the ELP in six homologous flares (F1--F6) originating from a complex active region (AR) NOAA 11283, with an emphasis on the emission characteristics of the flares. It is found that the main production mechanism of the ELP changes from additional heating in flare F1 to long-lasting cooling in flares F3--F6, with both mechanisms playing a role in flare F2. The transition is evidenced by an abrupt decrease of the time lag of the ELP peak, and the long-lasting cooling process in the majority of the flares is validated by a positive correlation between the flare ribbon fluence and the ELP peak intensity. We attribute the change in ELP production mechanism to an enhancement of the envelope magnetic field above the AR, which facilitates a more prompt and energetic heating of the ELP loops. In addition, the last and the only confined flare F6 exhibits an extremely large ELP. The different emission pattern revealed in this flare may reflect a different energy partitioning inside the ELP loops, which is due to a different magnetic reconnection process.

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arXiv2020

The Kinematic Evolution of Erupting Structures in Confined Solar Flares

In this Letter, we study the kinematic properties of ascending hot blobs associated with confined flares. Taking advantage of high-cadence extreme-ultraviolet images provided by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory, we find that for the 26 events selected here, the hot blobs are first impulsively accelerated outward, but then quickly slow down to motionlessness. Their velocity evolution is basically synchronous with the temporal variation of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite soft X-ray flux of the associated flares, except that the velocity peak precedes the soft X-ray peak by minutes. Moreover, the duration of the acceleration phase of the erupting blobs is moderately correlated with that of the flare rise phase. For nine of the 26 cases, the erupting blobs even appear minutes prior to the onset of the associated flares. Our results show that a fraction of confined flares also involve the eruption of a magnetic flux rope, which sometimes is formed and heated prior to the flare onset. We suggest that the initiation and development of these confined flares are similar to that of eruptive ones, and the main difference may lie in the background field constraint, which is stronger for the former than for the latter.

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arXiv2020

Evolution of the Toroidal Flux of CME Flux Ropes during Eruption

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are large-scale explosions of the coronal magnetic field. It is believed that magnetic reconnection significantly builds up the core structure of CMEs, a magnetic flux rope, during the eruption. However, the quantitative evolution of the flux rope, particularly its toroidal flux, is still unclear. In this paper, we study the evolution of the toroidal flux of the CME flux rope for four events. The toroidal flux is estimated as the magnetic flux in the footpoint region of the flux rope, which is identified by a method that simultaneously takes the coronal dimming and the hook of the flare ribbon into account. We find that the toroidal flux of the CME flux rope for all four events shows a two-phase evolution: a rapid increasing phase followed by a decreasing phase. We further compare the evolution of the toroidal flux with that of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites soft X-ray flux and find that they are basically synchronous in time, except that the peak of the former is somewhat delayed. The results suggest that the toroidal flux of the CME flux rope may be first quickly built up by the reconnection mainly taking place in the sheared overlying field and then reduced by the reconnection among the twisted field lines within the flux rope, as enlightened by a recent 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulation of CMEs.

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arXiv2020

Some interesting topics provoked by the solar filament research in the past decade

Solar filaments are an intriguing phenomenon, like cool clouds suspended in the hot corona. Similar structures exist in the intergalactic medium as well. Despite being a long-studied topic, solar filaments have continually attracted intensive attention because of their link to the coronal heating, coronal seismology, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). In this review paper, by combing through the solar filament-related work done in the past decade, we discuss several controversial topics, such as the fine structures, dynamics, magnetic configurations, and helicity of filaments. With high-resolution and high-sensitivity observations, combined with numerical simulations, it is expected that resolving these disputes will definitely lead to a huge leap in understanding the physics related to solar filaments, and even shed light on galactic filaments.

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arXiv2020

The Lyman-alpha Emission in Solar Flares. I. a Statistical Study on Its Relationship with the 1--8 Å Soft X-ray Emission

We statistically study the relationship between the Lyman-alpha (\lya) and 1--8 Å soft X-ray (SXR) emissions from 658 M- and X-class solar flares observed by the {\em Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite} during 2006--2016. Based on the peak times of the two waveband emissions, we divide the flares into three types. Type I (III) has an earlier (a later) peak time in the \lya\ emission than that in the SXR emission, while type II has nearly a same peak time (within the time resolution of 10 s) between the \lya\ and SXR emissions. In these 658 flares, we find that there are 505 (76.8\%) type I flares, 10 (1.5\%) type II flares, and 143 (21.7\%) type III flares, and that the three types appear to have no dependence on the flare duration, flare location, or solar cycle. Besides the main peak, the \lya\ emission of the three type flares also shows sub-peaks which can appear in the impulsive or gradual phase of the flare. It is found that the main-peak (for type I) and sub-peak (for type III) emissions of \lya\ that appear in the impulsive phase follow the Neupert effect in general. This indicates that such \lya\ emissions are related to the nonthermal electron beam heating. While the main-peak (for type III) and sub-peak (for type I) emissions of \lya\ that appear in the gradual phase are supposed to be primarily contributed by the thermal plasma that cools down.

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arXiv2020

Spectroscopic Observations of High-speed Downflows in a C1.7 Solar Flare

In this paper, we analyze the high-resolution UV spectra for a C1.7 solar flare (SOL2017-09-09T06:51) observed by the \textit{Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph} (\textit{IRIS}). {We focus on the spectroscopic observations at the locations where the cool lines of \ion{Si}{4} 1402.8 Å ($\sim$10$^{4.8}$ K) and \ion{C}{2} 1334.5/1335.7 Å ($\sim$10$^{4.4}$ K) reveal significant redshifts with Doppler velocities up to $\sim$150 km s$^{-1}$.} These redshifts appear in the rise phase of the flare, then increase rapidly, reach the maximum in a few minutes, and proceed into the decay phase. Combining the images from \textit{IRIS} and Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board the {\em Solar Dynamics Observatory} ({\em SDO}), we propose that the redshifts in the cool lines are caused by the downflows in the transition region and upper chromospheric layers, which likely result from a magnetic reconnection leading to the flare. In addition, the cool \ion{Si}{4} and \ion{C}{2} lines show gentle redshifts (a few tens of km s$^{-1}$) at some other locations, which manifest some distinct features from the above locations. This is supposed to originate from a different physical process.

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arXiv2020

The Magnetic Topology and Eruption Mechanism of a Multiple-ribbon Flare

Multiple-ribbon flares are usually complex in their magnetic topologies and eruption mechanisms. In this paper, we investigate an X2.1 flare (SOL2015-03-11T16:22) that occurred in active region 12297 near the center of the solar disk by both potential and nonlinear force-free field models extrapolated with the data observed by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on board Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). We calculate the three-dimensional squashing degree distribution. The results reveal that there are two flux ropes in this active region, covered by a large scale hyperbolic flux tube (HFT), which is the intersection of quasi-separatrix layers with a null point embedded in it. When the background magnetic field diminishes due to the separation of the northwest dipole and the flux cancellation, the central flux rope rises up forming the two brightest central ribbons. It then squeezes the upper lying HFT structure to generate further brightenings. This very energetic flare with a complex shape is accompanied by a coronal mass ejection (CME). We adopt the simplified line-tied force-balance equation of the current ring model and assign the observed value of the decay index to the equation to simulate the acceleration profile of the CME in the early stage. It is found that the path with an inclination of $45^\circ$ from radial best fits the profile of the actual acceleration.

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arXiv2020

Spectral Diagnostics of Solar Photospheric Bright Points

By use of the high-resolution spectral data and the broadband imaging obtained with the Goode Solar Telescope at the Big Bear Solar Observatory on 2013 June 6, the spectra of three typical photospheric bright points (PBPs) have been analyzed. Based on the H$α$ and Ca II 8542 Åline profiles, as well as the TiO continuum emission, for the first time, the non-LTE semi-empirical atmospheric models for the PBPs are computed. The attractive characteristic is the temperature enhancement in the lower photosphere. The temperature enhancement is about 200 -- 500 K at the same column mass density as in the atmospheric model of the quiet-Sun. The total excess radiative energy of a typical PBP is estimated to be 1$\times$10$^{27}$ - 2$\times$10$^{27}$ ergs, which can be regarded as the lower limit energy of the PBPs. The radiation flux in the visible continuum for the PBPs is about 5.5$\times$10$^{10}$ ergs cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$. Our result also indicates that the temperature in the atmosphere above PBPs is close to that of a plage. It gives a clear evidence that PBPs may contribute significantly to the heating of the plage atmosphere. Using our semi-empirical atmospheric models, we estimate self-consistently the average magnetic flux density $B$ in the PBPs. It is shown that the maximum value is about one kilo-Gauss, and it decreases towards both higher and lower layers, reminding us of the structure of a flux tube between photospheric granules.

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arXiv2020

What determine Solar Flares Producing Interplanetary Type III Radio Bursts?

Energetic electrons accelerated by solar flares often give rise to type III radio bursts at a broad waveband and even interplanetary type III bursts (IT3) if the wavelength extends to decameter-kilometer. In this Letter, we investigate the probability of the flares that produce IT3, based on the sample of 2272 flares above M-class observed from 1996 to 2016. It is found that only 49.6% of the flares are detected to be accompanied with IT3. The duration, peak flux, and fluence of the flares with and without IT3 both present power-law distributions in the frequency domain, but the corresponding spectral indices for the former (2.06$\pm$0.17, 2.04$\pm$0.18, and 1.55$\pm$0.09) are obviously smaller than that for the latter (2.82$\pm$0.22, 2.51$\pm$0.19, and 2.40$\pm$0.09), showing that the flares with IT3 have longer durations and higher peak fluxes. We further examine the relevance of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) to the two groups of flares. It is found that 58% (655 of 1127) of the flares with IT3 but only 19% (200 of 1078) of the flares without IT3 are associated with CMEs, and that the associated CMEs for the flares with IT3 are inclined to be wider and faster. This indicates that CMEs may also play a role in producing IT3, speculatively facilitating the escape of accelerated electrons from the low corona to the interplanetary space.

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arXiv2020

Non-LTE Calculations of the Mg I 12.32 $μ$m Line in a Flaring Atmosphere

The infrared Mg I lines near 12 microns are a pair of emission lines which are magnetically sensitive and have been used to measure solar magnetic fields. Here we calculate the response of the Mg I 12.32 $μ$m line during a flare and find that in our modeling this line has a complicated behavior. At the beginning of the flare heating, this line shows an intensity dimming at the line center. The intensity then increases when heating continues, with increasing contributions from the heated layers in the chromosphere. The line formation height and the line width also increase as a result. As for the polarized line profiles, we find that flare heating tends to decrease the Zeeman splitting width and attenuates the Stokes $V$ lobe intensity. The wider features in the Stokes $V$ profiles are more pronounced during flare heating, which should be considered when performing magnetic field inversions.

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arXiv2020

IRIS Si IV Line Profiles at Flare Ribbons as Indications of Chromospheric Condensation

We present temporal variations of the Si IV line profiles at the flare ribbons in three solar flares observed by the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS). In the M1.1 flare on 2014 September 6 and the X1.6 flare on 2014 September 10, the Si IV line profiles evolve from wholly redshifted to red-wing enhanced with the flare development. However, in the B1.8 flare on 2016 December 2, the Si IV line profiles are wholly redshifted throughout the flare evolution. We fit the wholly redshifted line profiles with a single Gaussian function but the red-asymmetric ones with a double Gaussian function to deduce the corresponding Doppler velocities. In addition, we find that hard X-ray emission above 25 keV shows up in the two large flares, implying a nonthermal electron beam heating. In the microflare, there only appears weak hard X-ray emission up to 12 keV, indicative of a thermal heating mostly. We interpret the redshifts or red asymmetries of the Si IV line at the ribbons in the three flares as spectral manifestations of chromospheric condensation. We propose that whether the line appears to be wholly redshifted or red-asymmetric depends on the heating mechanisms and also on the propagation of the condensation.

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arXiv2020

Modeling the IRIS Lines During a Flare. I. The Blue-Wing Enhancement in the Mg II k Line

The IRIS Mg II k line serves as a very good tool to diagnose the heating processes in solar flares. Recent studies have shown that apart from the usual red asymmetries which are interpreted as the result of condensation downflows, this line could also show a blue-wing enhancement. To investigate how such a blue asymmetry is formed, we perform a grid of radiative hydrodynamic simulations and calculate the corresponding line profiles. We find that such a spectral feature is likely to originate from the upward plasma motion in the upper chromosphere. However, the formation region that is responsible for the blue-wing enhancement could be located in an evaporation region, in an upward moving blob, and even an upward moving condensation region. We discuss how the electron beam parameters affect these different dynamics of the atmosphere.

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arXiv2020

Initiation and Early Kinematic Evolution of Solar Eruptions

We investigate the initiation and early evolution of 12 solar eruptions, including six active region hot channel and six quiescent filament eruptions, which were well observed by the \textsl{Solar Dynamics Observatory}, as well as by the \textsl{Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory} for the latter. The sample includes one failed eruption and 11 coronal mass ejections, with velocities ranging from 493 to 2140~km~s$^{-1}$. A detailed analysis of the eruption kinematics yields the following main results. (1) The early evolution of all events consists of a slow-rise phase followed by a main-acceleration phase, the height-time profiles of which differ markedly and can be best fit, respectively, by a linear and an exponential function. This indicates that different physical processes dominate in these phases, which is at variance with models that involve a single process. (2) The kinematic evolution of the eruptions tends to be synchronized with the flare light curve in both phases. The synchronization is often but not always close. A delayed onset of the impulsive flare phase is found in the majority of the filament eruptions (5 out of 6). This delay, and its trend to be larger for slower eruptions, favor ideal MHD instability models. (3) The average decay index at the onset heights of the main acceleration is close to the threshold of the torus instability for both groups of events (although based on a tentative coronal field model for the hot channels), suggesting that this instability initiates and possibly drives the main acceleration.

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arXiv2019

Quantifying the Toroidal Flux of Pre-existing Flux Ropes of CMEs

In past decades, much progress has been achieved on the origin and evolution of coronal mass ejections (CMEs). In-situ observations of the counterparts of CMEs, especially magnetic clouds (MCs) near the Earth, have provided measurements of the structure and total flux of CME flux ropes. However, it has been difficult to measure these properties in the erupting CME flux rope, in particular in the pre-existing flux rope. In this work, we propose a model to estimate the toroidal flux of the pre-existing flux rope by subtracting the flux contributed by magnetic reconnection during the eruption from the flux measured in the MC. The flux by the reconnection is derived from geometric properties of two-ribbon flares based on a quasi-2D reconnection model. We then apply the model to four CME/flare events and find that the ratio of toroidal flux in the pre-existing flux rope to that of the associated MC lies in the range of 0.40--0.88. It indicates that the toroidal flux of the pre-existing flux rope has an important contribution to that of the CME flux rope and is usually at least as large as the flux arising from the eruption process for the selected events.

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arXiv2019

Formation and Eruption of a Mini-sigmoid Originating in Coronal Hole

In this paper, we study in detail the evolution of a mini-sigmiod originating in a cross-equatorial coronal hole, where the magnetic field is mostly open and seriously distinct from the closed background field above active-region sigmoids. The source region first appeared as a bipole, which subsequently experienced a rapid emergence followed by a long-term decay. Correspondingly, the coronal structure initially appeared as arc-like loops, then gradually sheared and transformed into continuously sigmoidal loops, mainly owing to flux cancellation near the polarity inversion line. The temperature of J-shaped and sigmoidal loops is estimated to be about $2.0\times10^{6}$ K, greater than that of the background coronal hole. Using the flux-rope insertion method, we further reconstruct the nonlinear force-free fields that well reproduces the transformation of the potential field into a sigmoidal field. The fact that the sheared and sigmoidal loops are mainly concentrated at around the high-Q region implies that the reconnection most likely takes place there to form the sigmoidal field and heat the plasma. Moreover, the twist of sigmoidal field lines is estimated to be around 0.8, less than the values derived for the sigmoids from active regions. However, the sigmoidal flux may quickly enter an unstable regime at the very low corona ($<10\ Mm$) due to the open background field. The results suggest that the mini-sigmoid, at least the one in our study, has the same formation and eruption process as the large-scale one, but is significantly influenced by the overlying flux.

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arXiv2019

Synthesising Solar Radio Images From Atmospheric Imaging Assembly Extreme-Ultraviolet Data

During non-flaring times, the radio flux of the Sun at the wavelength of a few centimeters to several tens of centimeters mostly originates from the thermal bremsstrahlung emission, very similar to the EUV radiation. Owing to such a proximity, it is feasible to investigate the relationship between the EUV emission and radio emission in a quantitative way. In this paper, we reconstruct the radio images of the Sun through the differential emission measure obtained from the multi-wavelength EUV images of the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on board Solar Dynamic Observatory. Through comparing the synthetic radio images at 6 GHz with those observed by Siberian Radioheliograph, we find that the predicted radio flux is qualitatively consistent with the observed value, confirming thermal origin of the coronal radio emission during non-flaring times. The results further show that the predicted radio flux is closer to the observations in the case of including the contribution of the plasma with temperatures above 3 MK than in the case of only involving the low temperature plasma as was usually done in the era of pre-SDO. We also discuss the applications of the method and uncertainties of the results.

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