We conduct comprehensive analysis of an X2.0 flare to derive quantities indicative of magnetic reconnection in solar corona by following temporally and spatially resolved flare ribbon evolution in ...the lower atmosphere. The analysis reveals a macroscopically distinctive two-stage reconnection marked by a clear division in the morphological evolution, reconnection rate, and energy release rate. During the first stage, the flare brightening starts at and primarily spreads along the polarity inversion line (PIL) with the maximum apparent speed comparable to the local Alfven speed. The second stage is dominated by ribbon expansion perpendicular to the PIL at a fraction of the local Alfven speed. We further develop a data analysis approach, namely reconnection sequence analysis, to determine the connectivity and reconnection flux during the flare between a dozen magnetic sources defined from partitioning the photospheric magnetogram. It is found that magnetic reconnection proceeds sequentially between magnetic cells, and the observationally measured reconnection flux in major cells compare favorably with computations by a topological model of magnetic reconnection. The three-dimensional evolution of magnetic reconnection is discussed with respect to its implication on helicity transfer and energy release through reconnection.
ABSTRACT Flare emissions in X-ray and EUV wavelengths have previously been modeled as the plasma response to impulsive heating from magnetic reconnection. Some flares exhibit gradually evolving X-ray ...and EUV light curves, which are believed to result from superposition of an extended sequence of impulsive heating events occurring in different adjacent loops or even unresolved threads within each loop. In this paper, we apply this approach to a long duration two-ribbon flare SOL2011-09-13T22 observed by the Atmosphere Imaging Assembly (AIA). We find that to reconcile with observed signatures of flare emission in multiple EUV wavelengths, each thread should be heated in two phases, an intense impulsive heating followed by a gradual, low-rate heating tail that is attenuated over 20-30 minutes. Each AIA resolved single loop may be composed of several such threads. The two-phase heating scenario is supported by modeling with both a zero-dimensional and a 1D hydrodynamic code. We discuss viable physical mechanisms for the two-phase heating in a post-reconnection thread.
We analyze high-cadence high-resolution observations of a C3.2 flare obtained by AIA/SDO on 2010 August 1. The flare is a long-duration event with soft X-ray and EUV radiation lasting for over 4 hr. ...Analysis suggests that magnetic reconnection and formation of new loops continue for more than 2 hr. Furthermore, the UV 1600 A observations show that each of the individual pixels at the feet of flare loops is brightened instantaneously with a timescale of a few minutes, and decays over a much longer timescale of more than 30 minutes. We use these spatially resolved UV light curves during the rise phase to construct empirical heating functions for individual flare loops, and model heating of coronal plasmas in these loops. The total coronal radiation of these flare loops are compared with soft X-ray and EUV radiation fluxes measured by GOES and AIA. This study presents a method to observationally infer heating functions in numerous flare loops that are formed and heated sequentially by reconnection throughout the flare, and provides a very useful constraint to coronal heating models.
Two-phase Heating in Flaring Loops Zhu, Chunming; Qiu, Jiong; Longcope, Dana W.
The Astrophysical journal,
03/2018, Letnik:
856, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
We analyze and model a C5.7 two-ribbon solar flare observed by the Solar Dynamics Observatory, Hinode, and GOES on 2011 December 26. The flare is made of many loops formed and heated successively ...over one and half hours, and their footpoints are brightened in the UV 1600 before enhanced soft X-ray and EUV missions are observed in flare loops. Assuming that anchored at each brightened UV pixel is a half flaring loop, we identify more than 6700 half flaring loops, and infer the heating rate of each loop from the UV light curve at the footpoint. In each half loop, the heating rate consists of two phases: intense impulsive heating followed by a low-rate heating that is persistent for more than 20 minutes. Using these heating rates, we simulate the evolution of their coronal temperatures and densities with the model of the "enthalpy-based thermal evolution of loops." In the model, suppression of thermal conduction is also considered. This model successfully reproduces total soft X-ray and EUV light curves observed in 15 passbands by four instruments GOES, AIA, XRT, and EVE. In this flare, a total energy of 4.9 × 1030 erg is required to heat the corona, around 40% of this energy is in the slow-heating phase. About two-fifths of the total energy used to heat the corona is radiated by the coronal plasmas, and the other three fifth transported to the lower atmosphere by thermal conduction.
We conduct a semi-quantitative analysis of two-ribbon flares to investigate the observational relationship between magnetic reconnection and energetics by revisiting the Bastille-day flare, ...particularly the UV and hard X-ray (HXR) observations. The analysis establishes that prominent UV emission is primarily produced by precipitating electrons that also produce HXRs. In addition, reconnection and subsequent energy release along adjacent field lines along the polarity inversion line (PIL) combined with elongated decay of UV emission may account for the observed extended UV ribbons whereas HXR sources with rapid decay appear mostly as compact kernels. Observations also show that HXR sources and UV brightenings exhibit an organized parallel motion along the magnetic PIL during the rise of the flare, and then the perpendicular expansion of UV ribbons dominate during the peak. With a 2.5 dimensional approximation with the assumed translational dimension along the PIL, we derive geometric properties of UV ribbons and infer the pattern of reconnection as with a varying magnetic guide field during reconnection. It is shown that HXR and UV emissions evolve in a similar way to reconnection rates determined by the perpendicular 'motion.' The analysis suggests that a relatively strong guide field may be present during the rise of the flare, whereas particle acceleration and non-thermal energy release are probably more efficient with an enhanced reconnection rate with a relatively weak guide field. We discuss the role of the guide field in reconnection and particle energization, as well as novel observational experiments that may be conducted to shed new light on these issues.
Biological nitrogen removal is the most prevalent wastewater nitrogen removal process but nitrification limits the rate of the whole process mainly due to the low efficiency of oxygen transfer. In ...this study, clean-water oxygenation tests, batch tests, long-term operational tests and metagenomic analyses were applied to assess the effects of micro-nano aeration on nitrification. The oxygen transfer coefficient (KLa), oxygen transfer rate (OTR) and oxygen transfer efficiency (OTE) were determined to be 0.56 min−1, 0.36 kg·m−3·h−1 and 71.43%, respectively during micro-nano-bubble aeration. Impressively, these values were 15 times greater than those of conventional aeration. The results of batch tests and long-term operation experiments found that the ammonia removal rate of micro-nano aeration was 3.2-fold that of conventional aeration. The energy cost for micro-nano aeration was calculated to be 3694.5 mg NH4+-N/kW·h, a 50% energy saving in comparison to conventional aeration. In addition, the nitrite accumulation ratio in the Micro-nano (MN) reactor was 1.5 that of the Conventional (CV) reactor. Metagenomic analysis showed that after long-term operation in micro-nano aeration, the abundances of genes encoding ammonia monooxygenase (amoA) and hydroxylamine oxidoreductase (hao) was more than 8-fold and 4-fold of those in conventional aeration, respectively. The abundance of the gene encoding nitrite oxidoreductase (nxrA) was similar in both reactors. Read taxonomy revealed that abundance of AOB-Nitrosomonas increased significantly when using micro-nano aeration, while abundance of NOB-Nitrospira abundance was similar in both reactors. The results of this study indicated that the micro-nano aeration process will increase the ammonia oxidation performance by enhancing oxygen transfer but was also shown to be beneficial for enhancing partial nitrification by specific enrichment of ammonia oxidizing bacteria. This latter result demonstrates the potential benefits of the micro-nano aeration process as an alternative approach to establishing high-rate partial nitrification.
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•Micro-nano aeration technology to achieve high-rate partial nitrification is built.•Oxygenation performance is revealed to be greater when using micro-nano aeration.•Micro-nano aeration saved more than 50% energy versus conventional aeration.•AOB abundance and its functional genes increased by micro-nano aeration.
ABSTRACT A compact X-class flare on 2004 February 26 showed a concentrated source of hard X-rays at the tops of the flare's loops. This was analyzed in previous work and interpreted as plasma heated ...and compressed by slow magnetosonic shocks (SMSs) generated during post-reconnection retraction of the flux. That work used analytic expressions from a thin flux tube (TFT) model, which neglected many potentially important factors such as thermal conduction and chromospheric evaporation. Here we use a numerical solution of the TFT equations to produce a more comprehensive and accurate model of the same flare, including those effects previously omitted. These simulations corroborate the prior hypothesis that slow-mode shocks persist well after the retraction has ended, thus producing a compact, loop-top source instead of an elongated jet, as steady reconnection models predict. Thermal conduction leads to densities higher than analytic estimates had predicted, and evaporation enhances the density still higher, but at lower temperatures. X-ray light curves and spectra are synthesized by convolving the results from a single TFT simulation with the rate at which flux is reconnected, as measured through motion of flare ribbons, for example. These agree well with light curves observed by RHESSI and GOES and spectra from RHESSI. An image created from a superposition of TFT model runs resembles one produced from RHESSI observations. This suggests that the HXR loop-top source, at least the one observed in this flare, could be the result of SMSs produced in fast reconnection models like Petschek's.
Abstract
We model the Neupert effect that relates flare heating energy with the observed soft X-ray (SXR) emission. The traditional form of the Neupert effect refers to the correlation between the ...time-integrated hard X-ray or microwave light curve and the SXR light curve. In this paper, we instead use as the proxy for heating energy the ultraviolet (UV) emission at the footpoints of flare loops and modify the model of the Neupert effect by taking into account the discrete nature of flare heating, as well as cooling. In the modified empirical model, spatially resolved UV light curves from the transition region or upper chromosphere are each convolved with a kernel function characterizing the decay of the flare loop emission. Contributions by all loops are summed to compare with the observed total SXR emission. The model has successfully reproduced the observed SXR emission from its rise to decay. To estimate the heating energies in flare loops, we also employ the UV footpoint calorimeter (UFC) method that infers heating rates in flare loops from these UV light curves and models the evolution of flare loops with a zero-dimensional hydrodynamic code. The experiments show that a multitude of impulsive heating events do not well reproduce the observed flare SXR light curve, but a two-phase heating model leads to better agreement with observations. Comparison of the two models of the Neupert effect further allows us to calibrate the UFC method and improve the estimate of heating rates in flare loops continuously formed by magnetic reconnection throughout the flare evolution.
Abstract
We study the evolution of solar eruptive events by investigating the temporal relationships among magnetic reconnection, flare energy release, and the acceleration of coronal mass ejections ...(CMEs). Leveraging the optimal viewing geometry of the Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) relative to the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and the Reuven Ramaty High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) during 2010–2013, we identify 12 events with sufficient spatial and temporal coverage for a detailed examination. STEREO and SDO data are used to measure the CME kinematics and the reconnection rate, respectively, and hard X-ray (HXR) measurements from RHESSI provide a signature of the flare energy release. This analysis expands upon previous solar eruptive event timing studies by examining the fast-varying features, or “bursts,” in the HXR and reconnection rate profiles, which represent episodes of energy release. Through a time lag correlation analysis, we find that HXR bursts occur throughout the main CME acceleration phase for most events, with the HXR bursts lagging the acceleration by 2 ± 9 minutes for fast CMEs. Additionally, we identify a nearly one-to-one correspondence between bursts in the HXR and reconnection rate profiles, with HXRs lagging the reconnection rate by 1.4 ± 2.8 minutes. The studied events fall into two categories: events with a single dominant HXR burst and events with a train of multiple HXR bursts. Events with multiple HXR bursts, indicative of intermittent reconnection and/or particle acceleration, are found to correspond with faster CMEs.
It is well accepted that a magnetic flux rope (MFR) is a critical component of many coronal mass ejections (CMEs), yet how it evolves toward eruption remains unclear. Here we investigate the ...continuous evolution of a pre-existing MFR, which is rooted in strong photospheric magnetic fields and electric currents. The evolution of the MFR is observed by the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) and the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) from multiple viewpoints. From STEREO's perspective, the MFR starts to rise slowly above the limb five hours before it erupts as a halo CME on 2012 June 14. In SDO observations, conjugate dimmings develop on the disk, simultaneously with the gradual expansion of the MFR, suggesting that the dimmings map the MFR's feet. The evolution comprises a two-stage gradual expansion followed by another stage of rapid acceleration/eruption. Quantitative measurements indicate that magnetic twist of the MFR increases from 1.0 0.5 to 2.0 0.5 turns during the five-hour expansion, and further increases to about 4.0 turns per astronomical unit (au) when detected as a magnetic cloud at 1 au two days later. In addition, each stage is preceded by flare(s), implying reconnection is actively involved in the evolution and eruption of the MFR. The implications of these measurements on the CME initiation mechanisms are discussed.
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