Chengming Tan

The Microwave Pulsations and the Tearing Modes in the Current-Carrying Flare Loops

Solar microwave observations of the X3.4 Flare/CME event observed in Chinese solar broadband radiospectrometer (SBRS/Huairou) on 2006 December 13 show a series of very short period pulsations (VSP) with the period of <1.0 s in the frequency range of 2.60-3.80 GHz. Many pulsating events have the period of only several tens of milliseconds. These pulsations are quasi-periodic, broad bandwidth, and ubiquitous during all the phases of the flare/CME event. Based on theoretical analysis of the temporal behavior of the resistive tearing mode in the electric current-carrying flare loops, we propose that microwave pulsations are a result of the modulation of the tearing-mode oscillations in the current-carrying flare loops. Our calculation of the period of the tearing-mode oscillations are in good agreement with the observations.

MICROWAVE ZEBRA PATTERN STRUCTURES IN THE X2.2 SOLAR FLARE ON 2011 FEBRUARY 15

A zebra pattern (ZP) structure is the most intriguing fine structure on the dynamic spectrograph of a solar microwave burst. On 2011 February 15, an X2.2 flare event erupted on the solar disk, which is the first X-class flare since the solar Schwabe cycle 24. It is interesting that there are several microwave ZPs observed by the Chinese Solar Broadband Radio Spectrometer (SBRS/Huairou) at a frequency of 6.40-7.00 GHz (ZP1) and at a frequency of 2.60-2.75 GHz (ZP2) and by the Yunnan Solar Broadband Radio Spectrometer (SBRS/Yunnan) at a frequency of 1.04-1.13 GHz (ZP3). The most important phenomenon is the unusual high-frequency ZP structure (ZP1, up to 7.00 GHz) that occurred in the early rising phase of the flare and the two ZP structures (ZP2, ZP3) with relatively low frequencies that occurred in the decay phase of the flare. By scrutinizing the current prevalent theoretical models of ZP structure generations and comparing their estimated magnetic field strengths in the corresponding source regions, we suggest that the double plasma resonance model is the most probable one for explaining the formation of microwave ZPs, which may derive the magnetic field strengths at about 230-345 G, 126-147 G, and 23-26 G in the source regions of ZP1, ZP2, and ZP3, respectively.

MICROWAVE QUASI-PERIODIC PULSATION WITH MILLISECOND BURSTS IN A SOLAR FLARE ON 2011 AUGUST 9

A peculiar microwave quasi-periodic pulsation (QPP) accompanying a hard X-ray (HXR) QPP of about 20 s duration occurred just before the maximum of an X6.9 solar flare on 2011 August 9. The most interesting aspect is that the microwave QPP consists of millisecond timescale superfine structures. Each microwave QPP pulse is made up of clusters of millisecond spike bursts or narrowband type III bursts. There are three different frequency drift rates: the global frequency drift rate of the microwave QPP pulse group, the frequency drift rate of the microwave QPP pulse, and the frequency drift rate of individual millisecond spikes or type III bursts. The physical analysis indicates that the energetic electrons accelerating from a large-scale highly dynamic magnetic reconnecting current sheet above the flaring loop propagate downward, impact the flaring plasma loop, and produce HXR bursts. The tearing-mode (TM) oscillations in the current sheet modulate HXR emission and generate HXR QPP; the energetic electrons propagating downward produce Langmuir turbulence and plasma waves, resulting in plasma emission. The modulation of TM oscillation on the plasma emission in the current-carrying plasma loop may generate microwave QPP. The TM instability produces magnetic islands in the loop. Each X-point will be a small reconnection site and will accelerate the ambient electrons. These accelerated electrons impact the ambient plasma and trigger the millisecond spike clusters or the group of type III bursts. Possibly, each millisecond spike burst or type III burst is one of the elementary bursts (EBs). A large number of such EB clusters form an intense flaring microwave burst.

STATISTICS AND CLASSIFICATION OF THE MICROWAVE ZEBRA PATTERNS ASSOCIATED WITH SOLAR FLARES

The microwave zebra pattern (ZP) is the most interesting, intriguing, and complex spectral structure frequently observed in solar flares. A comprehensive statistical study will certainly help us to understand the formation mechanism, which is not exactly clear now. This work presents a comprehensive statistical analysis of a big sample with 202 ZP events collected from observations at the Chinese Solar Broadband Radio Spectrometer at Huairou and the Ondŕejov Radiospectrograph in the Czech Republic at frequencies of 1.00-7.60 GHz from 2000 to 2013. After investigating the parameter properties of ZPs, such as the occurrence in flare phase, frequency range, polarization degree, duration, etc., we find that the variation of zebra stripe frequency separation with respect to frequency is the best indicator for a physical classification of ZPs. Microwave ZPs can be classified into three types: equidistant ZPs, variable-distant ZPs, and growing-distant ZPs, possibly corresponding to mechanisms of the Bernstein wave model, whistler wave model, and double plasma resonance model, respectively. This statistical classification may help us to clarify the controversies between the existing various theoretical models and understand the physical processes in the source regions.

Spectral and spatial observations of microwave spikes and zebra structure in the short radio burst of May 29, 2003

Context. The unusual radio burst of May 29, 2003 connected with the M1.5 flare in AR 10368 has been analyzed. It was observed by the Solar Broadband Radio Spectrometer (SBRS/Huairou station, Beijing) in the 5.2‐7.6 GHz range. It proved to be only the third case of a neat zebra structure appearing among all observations at such high frequencies. Despite the short duration of the burst (25 s), it provided a wealth of data for studying the superfine structure with millisecond resolution (5 ms). Aims. We localize the site of emission sources in the flare region, estimate plasma parameters in the generation sites, and suggest applicable mechanisms for interpretating spikes and zebra-structure generation. Methods. We analyze of flare area structures and spectral parameters of millisecond spikes and their radio sources. We then interpret the superfine structure in the framework of known models. Results. Positions of radio bursts were obtained by the Siberian Solar Radio Telescope (SSRT) (5.7 GHz) and Nobeyama radioheliograph (NoRH) (17 GHz). The flare configuration includes two systems of loops with the common base near the N-spot. The loop bases coincide with polarized emission sources at 17 GHz. The sources in intensity gravitated to tops of short loops at 17 GHz, and to long loops at 5.7 GHz. Short pulses at 17 GHz (with a temporal resolution of 100 ms) are registered in the R-polarized source over the N-magnetic polarity (extraordinary mode). The positions of the subsecond pulse sources at 5.7 GHz change from pulse to pulse and are level with the tops of some loops over the magnetic field’s neutral line. Dynamic spectra show that all the emission comprised millisecond pulses (spikes) of 5‐10 ms duration in the instantaneous band of 70 to 100 MHz, forming the superfine structure of different bursts, essentially in the form of fast or slow-drift fibers and various zebra-structure stripes. Five scales of zebra structures have been singled out. The occurrence of the spikes is associated with the formation of two new radio sources with different polarities, which appeared simultaneously on SSRT and NoRH maps. This took place after new magnetic fluxes of opposite polarity had emerged in the leading spot and a new magnetic “delta” configuration had been formed. Conclusions. As the main mechanism for generating spikes (as the initial emission) we suggest the coalescence of plasma waves with whistlers in the pulse regime of interaction between whistlers and ion-sound waves. In this case one can explain the appearance of fibers and sporadic zebra-structure stripes exhibiting the frequency splitting.

MICROWAVE TYPE III PAIR BURSTS IN SOLAR FLARES

A solar microwave type III pair burst is composed of normal and reverse-sloped (RS) burst branches with oppositely fast frequency drifts. It is the most sensitive signature of the primary energy release and electron accelerations in flares. This work reports 11 microwave type III pair events in 9 flares observed by radio spectrometers in China and the Czech Republic at a frequency of 0.80–7.60 GHz during 1994–2014. These type III pairs occurred in flare impulsive and postflare phases with separate frequencies in the range of 1.08–3.42 GHz and a frequency gap of 10–1700 MHz. The frequency drift increases with the separate frequency (fx), the lifetime of each burst is anti-correlated to fx, while the frequency gap is independent of fx. In most events, the normal branches are drifting obviously faster than the RS branches. The type III pairs occurring in flare impulsive phase have lower separate frequencies, longer lifetimes, wider frequency gaps, and slower frequency drifts than that occurring in postflare phase. Also, the latter always has strong circular polarization. Further analysis indicates that near the flare energy release sites the plasma density is about cm−3 and the temperature is higher than 107 K. These results provide new constraints to the acceleration mechanism in solar flares.

Imaging and representation learning of solar radio spectrums for classification

In this paper, the authors make the first attempt to employ the deep learning method for the representation learning of the solar radio spectrums. The original solar radio spectrums are pre-processed, including normalization, enhancement and etc., to generate new images for the next processing. With the expertise of solar radio astronomy for identifying solar radio activity, we build a solar radio activity database, which contains solar radio spectrums as well as their labels indicating the types of solar radio bursts. The employed deep learning network is firstly pre-trained based on the available massive of unlabeled radio solar images. Afterwards, the weights of the network are further fined-tuned based on the labeled data. Experimental results have demonstrated that the employed network can effectively classify the solar radio image into the labeled categories. Moreover, the pre-training process can help improve the classification accuracy.

SOLAR RADIO BURSTS WITH SPECTRAL FINE STRUCTURES IN PREFLARES

A good observation of preflare activities is important for us to understand the origin and triggering mechanism of solar flares, and to predict the occurrence of solar flares. This work presents the characteristics of microwave spectral fine structures as preflare activities of four solar flares observed by Ondřejov radio spectrograph in the frequency range of 0.8--2.0 GHz. We found that these microwave bursts which occurred 1--4 minutes before the onset of flares have spectral fine structures with relatively weak intensities and very short timescales. They include microwave quasi-periodic pulsations (QPP) with very short period of 0.1-0.3 s and dot bursts with millisecond timescales and narrow frequency bandwidths. Accompanying these microwave bursts, there are filament motions, plasma ejection or loop brightening on the EUV imaging observations and non-thermal hard X-ray emission enhancements observed by RHESSI. These facts may reveal certain independent non-thermal energy releasing processes and particle acceleration before the onset of solar flares. They may be conducive to understand the nature of solar flares and predict their occurrence.

A New Solar Radio Spectrometer at 1.10–2.06GHz and First Observational Results

An improved Solar Radio Spectrometer working at 1.10–2.06 GHz with much improved spectral and temporal resolution, has been accomplished by the National Astronomical Observatories and Hebei Semiconductor Research Institute, based on an old spectrometer at 1–2 GHz. The new spectrometer has a spectral resolution of 4 MHz and a temporal resolution of 5 ms, with an instantaneous detectable range from 0.02 to 10 times of the quiet Sun flux. It can measure both left and right circular polarization with an accuracy of 10% in degree of polarization. Some results of preliminary observations that could not be recorded by the old spectrometer at 1–2 GHz are presented.

VERY LONG-PERIOD PULSATIONS BEFORE THE ONSET OF SOLAR FLARES

Solar flares are the most powerful explosions occurring in the solar system, which may lead to disastrous space weather events and impact various aspects of our Earth. So far, it is still a big challenge in modern astrophysics to understand the origin of solar flares and predict their onset. Based on the analysis of soft X-ray emission observed by the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES), this work reported a new discovery of very long-periodic pulsations occurred in the preflare phase before the onset of solar flares (preflare-VLPs). These pulsations are typically with period of 8 - 30 min and last for about 1 - 2 hours. They are possibly generated from LRC oscillations of plasma loops where electric current dominates the physical process during magnetic energy accumulation in the source region. The preflare-VLP provides an essential information for understanding the triggering mechanism and origin of solar flares, and may help us to response to solar explosions and the corresponding disastrous space weather events as a convenient precursory indicator.