A circular white-light flare with impulsive and gradual white-light kernels

White-light flares are the flares with emissions visible in the optical continuum. They are thought to be rare and pose the most stringent requirements in energy transport and heating in the lower atmosphere. Here we present a nearly circular white-light flare on 10 March 2015 that was well observed...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2017-12, Vol.8 (1), p.2202-8, Article 2202
Main Authors: Hao, Q., Yang, K., Cheng, X., Guo, Y., Fang, C., Ding, M. D., Chen, P. F., Li, Z.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/33/34/864
639/33/34/867
639/33/525/870
Electron beams
Electron bombardment
Flares
Humanities and Social Sciences
I.R. radiation
Kernels
Light
Lower atmosphere
Magnetohydrodynamics
multidisciplinary
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Soft x rays
Solar activity
Solar observatories
Wave propagation
White light
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Summary:White-light flares are the flares with emissions visible in the optical continuum. They are thought to be rare and pose the most stringent requirements in energy transport and heating in the lower atmosphere. Here we present a nearly circular white-light flare on 10 March 2015 that was well observed by the Optical and Near-infrared Solar Eruption Tracer and Solar Dynamics Observatory. In this flare, there appear simultaneously both impulsive and gradual white-light kernels. The generally accepted thick-target model would be responsible for the impulsive kernels but not sufficient to interpret the gradual kernels. Some other mechanisms including soft X-ray backwarming or downward-propagating Alfvén waves, acting jointly with electron beam bombardment, provide a possible interpretation. However, the origin of this kind of white-light kernel is still an open question that induces more observations and researches in the future to decipher it. White-light flares are rare solar events entailing emission in the optical continuum. Here, the authors report a nearly circular white-light flare observed on March 10th 2015 that contains simultaneously both impulsive and gradual white-light kernels.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-017-02343-0