Plasma Diagnostics and Hydrodynamic Evolution of Solar Flares
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Plasma Diagnostics and Hydrodynamic Evolution of Solar Flares Daniel F. Ryan, B. A. (Mod.) School of Physics University of Dublin, Trinity College A thesis submitted for the degree of PhilosophiæDoctor (PhD) 2014 ii Declaration I, Daniel F. Ryan, hereby certify that I am the sole author of this thesis and that all the work presented in it, unless otherwise referenced, is entirely my own. I also declare that this work has not been submitted, in whole or in part, to any other university or college for any degree or other qualification. The thesis work was conducted from October 2009 to October 2013 under the supervision of Dr. Peter T. Gallagher at Trinity College, University of Dublin. In submitting this thesis to the University of Dublin I agree to deposit this thesis in the University's open access institutional repository or allow the library to do so on my behalf, subject to Irish Copyright Legislation and Trinity College Library conditions of use and acknowledgement. Name: Daniel F. Ryan Signature: ........................................ Date: .............. Summary Solar flares are among the most powerful events in the solar system with the ability to damage satellites, disrupt telecommunications and produce spectacular aurorae. They are believed to occur when energy is rapidly released from highly stressed magnetic fields in the solar corona. Part of this energy heats the coronal plasma to millions of kelvin resulting in plasma flows and electromagnetic emission, among other things. However, despite decades of research, the evolution of these eruptive events is still not fully understood. In this thesis, we examine the thermo- and hydrodynamic evolution of solar flares and develop plasma diagnostics to better study them. To date, the study of the thermo- and hydrodynamic evolution of solar flares has been dominated by studies of single or small samples of events. In this thesis we develop an automatic background subtraction algorithm for GOES/XRS observations, the Temperature and Emission measure-Based Background Subtraction (TEBBS). This allows the thermal properties of large numbers of solar flares to be analysed quickly and accurately, which permits flares to be studied in a statistically meaningful way. As part of this work, we analyse over 50,000 flares in the period 1980{2007 and create an online database of flare thermal properties for use by the solar physics community. The TEBBS method is then used in subsequent studies of ensembles of solar flares. The first compares the peak temperatures of 149 flare DEMs (Differential Emission Measure distributions) calculated using SDO/AIA with those determined with GOES/XRS and RHESSI using the isothermal assumption. It is found that the isothermal assumption leads to overesti- mates of the DEM peak temperature in GOES/XRS and RHESSI observa- tions and hence the resulting isothermal temperature biases are quantified. We also find from a discrepancy between predicted and observed RHESSI biases that accurate flare DEMs must be determined by simultaneous fit- ting EUV (SDO/AIA) and SXR (GOES/XRS and RHESSI) fluxes by an appropriately parameterised function, e.g. an asymmetric bi-Gaussian. Finally, GOES/XRS and SDO/EVE are used to chart the cooling of 72 flares and the observations are compared to a simple hydrodynamic flare cooling model. The model is found to provide a well-defined lower limit to the observed cooling time of a flare, but does not well fit the distribu- tion. The discrepancies between the model and observations are assumed to be due to additional heating which is then compared to the flares’ overall thermal energies. It is found that the heating required is physically plau- sible, typically making up about half of the thermally-radiated energy as determined by GOES/XRS. This suggests that the energy released during a flare’s decay phase is just as significant as that released during its impulsive phase. The work outlined in this thesis sheds light on coronal plasma diagnostics and the thermo- and hydrodynamic evolution of solar flares. It demonstrates the importance of examining an ensemble of events in order to put the detailed results of single event studies into context and also give statistical significance to such results. The results outlined here would be useful in finding new ways of testing more advanced hydrodynamic flare models and developing a more comprehensive understanding of the evolution of solar flares. To my brother, Cormac, the greatest example of perseverance and triumph and to my Father per ardua ad astra Acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to acknowledge the Irish Research Council, the Ful- bright Association and NASA's Living With a Star Targeted Research and Technology Program for funding the research contained in this thesis. I would like to thank my supervisor, Prof. Peter Gallagher for giving me the opportunity to do a PhD. Thanks for his invaluable guidance, support and understanding throughout these four years. Thanks also to Dr. Ryan Milligan and Dr. Phil Chamberlin, both of whom supervised me during my times at NASA/GSFC and continued to support me since becoming involved in my research. I would like to thank my collaborators at NASA/GSFC: Dr. Brian Dennis, Richard Schwartz, Kim Tolbert, and Dr. Alex Young for their help and support and for making me at home while I was in America. In addition, thanks to Dr. Markus Aschwanden at LMSAL for his invaluable insight and encouragement during our collaboration as well as Aidan O'Flannagain for his very helpful contribution to that same work. I would also like to thank Dr. David P´erez-Su´arezwho helped so much with creating the TEBBS website as well as Dr. Shaun Bloomfield for his willingness to help whenever asked. Many thanks to all the members of the Astrophysics Research Group during the time I was there for the great atmosphere and support which made being a PhD student such as pleasure. Last but not least, thanks to my close friends and my family, my parents for raising me and my brothers for being my brothers. Publications Refereed 1. Ryan, D. F., O'Flannagain, A. M., Aschwanden, M. J., Gallagher, P. T. The Compatibility of Flare Temperatures Observed with AIA, GOES and RHESSI Solar Physics, 289, 2547, 2014 2. Ryan, D. F., Chamberlin, P. C., Milligan, R. O., Gallagher, P. T. Decay Phase Cooling and Heating of M- and X-class Solar Flares, Astrophysical Journal, 778, 68, 2013 3. Bloomfield, D. S., Gallagher, P. T., Maloney, S. A., P´erez-Su´arez,D., Higgins, P. A., Carley, E. P., Long, D. M., Murray, S. A., O'Flannagain, A., Ryan, D. F., and Zucca, P. A Comprehensive Overview of the 2011 June 7 Solar Storm, Astronomy & Astrophysics, in review, 2012 4. Ryan, D. F., Milligan, R. O., Gallagher, P. T., Dennis, B. R., Tolbert, A. K., Schwartz, R. A., Young, C. A. Thermal Properties of Solar Flares Over Three Solar Cycles Using GOES X-ray Observations, Astrophysical Journal Supplemental Series, 202, 11, 2012 ix 0. PUBLICATIONS x Contents Publications ix List of Figures xv List of Tables xxix Glossary xxxi 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Internal Structure . .4 1.2 The Solar Atmosphere . 11 1.2.1 The Photosphere . 12 1.2.2 The Chromosphere & Transition Region . 13 1.2.3 The Corona . 16 1.3 The Sun's Magnetic Field & the Solar Cycle . 19 1.4 Active Regions . 26 1.5 Solar Flares . 30 1.5.1 The CSHKP Flare Model . 33 1.6 Thesis Outline . 38 2 Theory 41 2.1 Atomic Physics . 42 2.1.1 Continuum emission . 44 2.1.1.1 Thermal Bremsstrahlung . 45 2.1.2 Emission Lines . 48 2.1.2.1 Atomic Structure . 50 2.1.2.2 Modelling Emission Line Flux in the Corona . 52 xi CONTENTS 2.1.3 Contribution Functions & Emission Measures . 56 2.1.4 CHIANTI Atomic Database . 58 2.1.5 Radiative Loss Function . 58 2.2 Hydrodynamics . 60 2.2.1 Plasma Kinetic Theory . 60 2.2.2 Equations of Hydrodynamics . 65 2.2.3 Flare Cooling Models . 67 2.2.4 The Cargill Flare Cooling Model . 69 3 Instrumentation 75 3.1 Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) . 76 3.1.1 The X-Ray Sensor (XRS) . 77 3.1.2 Deriving Thermal Plasma Properties Using GOES/XRS . 80 3.2 Reuven Ramaty High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) . 85 3.2.1 The RHESSI Instrument . 86 3.2.2 Deriving Thermal Plasma Properties Using RHESSI . 89 3.3 Hinode . 91 3.3.1 X-Ray Telescope (XRT) . 91 3.4 Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) . 94 3.4.1 Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) . 95 3.4.2 EUV Variability Experiment (EVE) . 98 3.4.2.1 Multiple EUV Grating Spectrograph-A (MEGS-A) . 99 4 Thermal Properties of Solar Flares Over Three Solar Cycles 103 4.1 Introduction . 104 4.2 Observations . 107 4.2.1 The GOES Event List . 108 4.3 Background Subtraction Method . 111 4.3.1 Previous Background Subtraction Methods . 112 4.3.2 Temperature and Emission measure-Based Background Subtrac- tion (TEBBS) . 116 4.4 Results . 125 4.5 Discussion . 133 4.6 Conclusions & Future Work . 138 xii CONTENTS 5 Comparison of Multi-Instrument Temperature Observations 143 5.1 Introduction . 144 5.2 Data Analysis . 146 5.2.1 SDO/AIA Measurements . 146 5.2.2 GOES/XRS Measurements . 152 5.2.3 RHESSI Measurements . 153 5.3 Discussion . 156 5.3.1 The GOES Temperature Bias . 156 5.3.2 The RHESSI Temperature Bias . 162 5.4 Conclusions . 167 6 Decay Phase Cooling & Inferred Heating of Solar Flares 171 6.1 Introduction . 172 6.2 Observations & Data Analysis . 174 6.2.1 Flare Sample . 174 6.2.2 Observing Flare Cooling .