Keywords

The solar flare is one of the most violent explosions, and can disturb the near-Earth space weather. Except for commonly single-peaked solar flares in soft X-ray, some special flares show intriguing a two-peak feature that is deserved much more attentions. Here, we reported a confined two-peaked solar flare and analyzed the associated eruptions using high-quality observations from Educational Adaptive-optics Solar Telescope and Solar Dynamics Observatory. Before the flare, a magnetic flux rope (MFR) formed through partially tether-cutting reconnection between two sheared arches. The flare occurred after the MFR eruption that was confined by the overlying strong field. Interestingly, a small underlying filament immediately erupted, which was possibly destabilized by the flare ribbon. The successive eruptions were confirmed by the analysis of the emission measure and the reconnection fluxes. Therefore, we suggest that the two peaks of the confined solar flare are corresponding to two episodes of magnetic reconnection during the successive eruptions of the MFR and the underlying filament.

The scattered stray light of a coronagraph is a type of stray light that is generated by the objective lens as its surface defects are irradiated by sunlight. The defects mainly include dust and blemishes on the lens surface, microroughness of the lens surface, and impurity and inhomogeneity of the glass. Unlike the other types of relatively stable defects introduced when the objective lens is being manufactured, the scattered stray light caused by dusts on the lens surface is difficult to quantify accurately due to the disorder and randomness of the dust accumulation. The contribution of this type of stray light to the overall stray light level is difficult to determine through simulations and experiments. This can result in continuous deterioration of the stray light level of a coronagraph and thus affect the observation capabilities of the instrument. To solve this issue, through analyzing the forming mechanism of scattered stray light and ghost image generated by the inner-occulted coronagraph, we propose a novel method to monitor the scattered stray light from dusts by utilizing different stray light correlation coefficients. In this method, we first simulate and measure the level of stray light from the ghost image of the objective lens, and then determine the flux ratio of scattered light and ghost image on the conjugate plane. Although the flux ratio varies with the accumulation of dusts on the lens surface, it remains constant on the image plane. Therefore, the level of dust scattering light on the image plane can be obtained by using this ratio together with the level of ghost image stray light. The accuracy of this method has been validated in a laboratory by applying the objective lens with numerous surface cleanliness levels.

Coronal magnetic fields evolve quasi-statically over long timescales and dynamically over short timescales. As of now there exist no regular measurements of coronal magnetic fields, and therefore generating the coronal magnetic field evolution using observations of the magnetic field at the photosphere is a fundamental requirement to understanding the origin of transient phenomena from solar active regions (ARs). Using the magneto-friction (MF) approach, we aim to simulate the coronal field evolution in the solar AR 11429. The MF method is implemented in the open source Pencil Code along with a driver module to drive the initial field with different boundary conditions prescribed from observed vector magnetic fields at the photosphere. In order to work with vector potential and the observations, we prescribe three types of bottom boundary drivers with varying free-magnetic energy. The MF simulation reproduces the magnetic structure, which better matches the sigmoidal morphology exhibited by Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) images at the pre-eruptive time. We found that the already sheared field further driven by the sheared magnetic field will maintain and further build the highly sheared coronal magnetic configuration, as seen in AR 11429. Data-driven MF simulation is a viable tool to generate the coronal magnetic field evolution, capturing the formation of the twisted flux rope and its eruption.

Remote-sensing measurements indicate that heavy ions in the corona undergo an anisotropic and mass-charge dependent energization. A popular explanation to this phenomenon is the damping of the Alfvén/ion cyclotron waves. In this paper, we propose that the ion beam instability can be an important source of the Alfvén/ion cyclotron waves, and we study the excitation of the ion beam instability in the corona at the heliocentric distance ∼3R_⊙ and the corresponding energy transfer process therein based on plasma kinetic theory. The results indicate that the existence of the motionless heavy ions inhibits the ion beam instability. However, the anisotropic beams of heavy ions promote the excitation of the ion beam instability. Besides, the existence of α beams can provide a second energy source for exciting beam instability. However, when both the proton beam and the α beam reach the instability excitation threshold, the proton beam driven instability excites preferentially. Moreover, the excitation threshold of the Alfvén/ion cyclotron instability driven by ion beam is of the local Alfvén speed or even less in the corona.

Magnetic helicity is an important concept in solar physics, with a number of theoretical statements pointing out the important role of magnetic helicity in solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Here we construct a sample of 47 solar flares, which contains 18 no-CME-associated confined flares and 29 CME-associated eruptive flares. We calculate the change ratios of magnetic helicity and magnetic free energy before and after these 47 flares. Our calculations show that the change ratios of magnetic helicity and magnetic free energy show distinct different distributions in confined flares and eruptive flares. The median value of the change ratios of magnetic helicity in confined flares is −0.8%, while this number is −14.5% for eruptive flares. For the magnetic free energy, the median value of the change ratios is −4.3% for confined flares, whereas this number is −14.6% for eruptive flares. This statistical result, using observational data, is well consistent with the theoretical understandings that magnetic helicity is approximately conserved in the magnetic reconnection, as shown by confined flares, and the CMEs take away magnetic helicity from the corona, as shown by eruptive flares.

The radio-occultation observations taken by Tianwen-1 are aiming to study the properties of solar wind. A new method of frequency fluctuation (FF) estimation is presented for processing the down-link signals of Tianwen-1 during the occultation period to study the properties of the coronal plasma at the heliocentric distances of 4.48–19 R_⊙. Because of low S/N as well as the phase fluctuation phenomena caused by solar activity, a Kalman based on polynomial prediction methods is proposed to avoid the phase locked loop loss lock. A new detrend method based on multi-level iteration correction is proposed to estimate Doppler shift to get more accurate power density spectra of FF in the low frequency region. The data analyze procedure is used to get the properties of the solar corona during the occultation. The method was finally verified at the point when the solar offset is 5.7 R_⊙, frequency tracking was successfully performed on data with a carrier-to-noise ratio of about 28 dBHz. The density spectra obtained by the improved method are basically the same when the frequency is greater than 2 mHz, the uncertainty in the result of the rms of the FF obtained by removing the trend term with different order polynomials is less than 3.3%. The data without eliminating interference show a large error for different detrending orders, which justifies the need for an improved approach. Finally, the frequency fluctuation results combined with the information on intensity fluctuation obtained by the new method are compared with the results of the integrated Space Weather Analysis system and theoretical formula, which verifies that the processing results in this paper have a certain degree of credibility.

The extraction of high-temperature regions in active regions (ARs) is an important means to help understand the mechanism of coronal heating. The important observational means of high-temperature radiation in ARs is the main emission line of Fe xviii in the 94 Å of the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly. However, the diagnostic algorithms for Fe xviii, including the differential emission measure (DEM) and linear diagnostics proposed by Del based on the DEM, have been greatly limited for a long time, and the results obtained are different from the predictions. In this paper, we use the outlier detection method to establish the nonlinear correlation between 94 Å and 171, 193, 211 Å based on the former researches by others. A neural network based on 171, 193, 211 Å is constructed to replace the low-temperature emission lines in the ARs of 94 Å. The predicted results are regarded as the low-temperature components of 94 Å, and then the predicted results are subtracted from 94 Å to obtain the outlier component of 94 Å, or Fe xviii. Then, the outlier components obtained by neural network are compared with the Fe xviii obtained by DEM and Del's method, and a high similarity is found, which proves the reliability of neural network to obtain the high-temperature components of ARs, but there are still many differences. In order to analyze the differences between the Fe xviii obtained by the three methods, we subtract the Fe xviii obtained by the DEM and Del's method from the Fe xviii obtained by the neural network to obtain the residual value, and compare it with the results of Fe xiv in the temperature range of 6.1–6.45 MK. It is found that there is a great similarity, which also shows that the Fe xviii obtained by DEM and Del's method still has a large low-temperature component dominated by Fe xiv, and the Fe xviii obtained by neural network is relatively pure.

We report detailed observation of the "herringbone" of a Type II solar radio burst that occurred on 2010 November 3rd. Data from the Space Weather Prediction Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, e-CALLISTO, and Nançay RadioHeliograph are analyzed. We determine the brightness temperature and degree of circular polarization of the "herringbone" burst. Correlations between the physical parameters and the "herringbone" are examined. Based on the relationship, this is the first study that suggested this "herringbone" was generated through fundamental plasma.

Magnetic fields play a key role in driving a broad range of dynamic phenomena in the atmospheres of the Sun and other stars. Routine and accurate measurements of the magnetic fields at all the atmospheric layers are of critical importance to understand these magnetic activities, but in the solar and stellar coronae such a measurement is still a challenge due to the weak field strength and the high temperature. Recently, a magnetic-field-induced transition (MIT) of Fe x at 257.26 Å has been proposed for the magnetic field measurements in the solar and stellar coronae. In this review, we present an overview of recent progresses in the application of this method in astrophysics. We start by introducing the theory underlying the MIT method and reviewing the existing atomic data critical for the spectral modeling of Fe x lines. We also discuss the laboratory measurements that verify the potential capability of the MIT technique as a probe for diagnosing the plasma magnetic fields. We then continue by investigating the suitability and accuracy of solar and stellar coronal magnetic field measurements based on the MIT method through forward modeling. Furthermore, we discuss the application of the MIT method to the existing spectroscopic observations obtained by the Extreme-ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer onboard Hinode. This novel technique provides a possible way for routine measurements of the magnetic fields in the solar and stellar coronae, but still requires further efforts to improve its accuracy. Finally, the challenges and prospects for future research on this topic are discussed.

Kink oscillations of coronal loops are often influenced by external events and this results in various changes of the oscillations. Studying the changes can provide valuable information for understanding kink oscillations. Our observation focuses on a flare region acquired by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on the Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft on 2016 March 23. There are a bunch of arched loops and an open loop near the region. However, their oscillations show very low amplitudes. So we used the jerk-aware motion method to magnify the weak oscillations. We found that before the flare onset at 02:59 UT, there were some large loops above the arched loops being raised rapidly. The properties of the weak oscillations show clear changes. On the one hand, the oscillations in the arched loops were decayless initially, but both their amplitude and period increased after 02:30 UT and before the flare onset. Once enhanced, the oscillations decayed with time. On the other hand, the oscillations in the open loop were nearly constant before and after 02:30 UT, but their period increased. This means that the changes in periods and amplitudes of oscillations are likely associated with the loops raised before the flare.