Witnessing a Large-scale Slipping Magnetic Reconnection along a Dimming Channel during a Solar Flare
- Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ 07102-1982 (United States)
- CAS Key Laboratory of Geospace Environment, Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026 (China)
- Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory, Palo Alto, CA 94304 (United States)
- Department of Physics, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717 (United States)
We report the intriguing large-scale dynamic phenomena associated with the M6.5 flare (SOL2015-06-22T18:23) in NOAA active region 12371, observed by RHESSI , Fermi , and the Atmospheric Image Assembly (AIA) and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on the Solar Dynamics Observatory ( SDO ). The most interesting feature of this event is a third ribbon (R3) arising in the decay phase, propagating along a dimming channel (seen in EUV passbands) toward a neighboring sunspot. The propagation of R3 occurs in the presence of hard X-ray footpoint emission and is broadly visible at temperatures from 0.6 MK to over 10 MK through the differential emission measure analysis. The coronal loops then undergo an apparent slipping motion following the same path of R3, after a ∼80 minute delay. To understand the underlying physics, we investigate the magnetic configuration and the thermal structure of the flaring region. Our results are in favor of a slipping-type reconnection followed by the thermodynamic evolution of coronal loops. In comparison with those previously reported slipping reconnection events, this one proceeds across a particularly long distance (∼60 Mm) over a long period of time (∼50 minutes) and shows two clearly distinguished phases: the propagation of the footpoint brightening driven by nonthermal particle injection and the apparent slippage of loops governed by plasma heating and subsequent cooling.
- OSTI ID:
- 22654456
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 842, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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