MAGNETIC NON-POTENTIALITY OF SOLAR ACTIVE REGIONS AND PEAK X-RAY FLUX OF THE ASSOCIATED FLARES
- Udaipur Solar Observatory, Physical Research Laboratory, Dewali, Bari Road, Udaipur 313 001 (India)
Predicting the severity of solar eruptive phenomena such as flares and coronal mass ejections remains a great challenge despite concerted efforts to do so over the past several decades. However, the advent of high-quality vector magnetograms obtained from Hinode (SOT/SP) has increased the possibility of meeting this challenge. In particular, the spatially averaged signed shear angle (SASSA) seems to be a unique parameter for quantifying the non-potentiality of active regions. We demonstrate the usefulness of the SASSA for predicting flare severity. For this purpose, we present case studies of the evolution of magnetic non-potentiality using 115 vector magnetograms of four active regions, namely, ARs NOAA 10930, 10960, 10961, and 10963 during 2006 December 8-15, 2007 June 3-10, 2007 June 28-July 5, and 2007 July 10-17, respectively. The NOAA ARs 10930 and 10960 were very active and produced X and M class flares, respectively, along with many smaller X-ray flares. On the other hand, the NOAA ARs 10961 and 10963 were relatively less active and produced only very small (mostly A- and B-class) flares. For this study, we have used a large number of high-resolution vector magnetograms obtained from Hinode (SOT/SP). Our analysis shows that the peak X-ray flux of the most intense solar flare emanating from the active regions depends on the magnitude of the SASSA at the time of the flare. This finding of the existence of a lower limit of the SASSA for a given class of X-ray flares will be very useful for space weather forecasting. We have also studied another non-potentiality parameter called the mean weighted shear angle (MWSA) of the vector magnetograms along with the SASSA. We find that the MWSA does not show such distinction as the SASSA for upper limits of the GOES X-ray flux of solar flares; however, both the quantities show similar trends during the evolution of all active regions studied.
- OSTI ID:
- 21464833
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 721, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/721/1/622; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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