Richard F. Donnelly

Thirteen-day periodicity and the center-to-limb dependence of UV, EUV, and X-ray emission of solar activity

Periodicity in the 13–14 day range for full-disk UV fluxes comes mainly from episodes of solar activity with two peaks per rotation, produced by the solar rotational modulation from two groups of active regions roughly 180° apart in solar longitude. Thirteen-day periodicity is quite strong relative to the 27-day periodicity for the solar UV flux at most wavelengths in the 1750–2900 Å range, because the rapid decrease in UV plage emission on average with increasing solar central angle shapes the UV variations for two peaks per rotation into nearly a 13-day sinusoid, with deep minima when the main groups of active regions are near the limb. Chromospheric EUV lines and ground-based chromospheric indices have moderate 13-day periodicity, where the slightly greater emission of regions near the limbs causes a lower strength relative to the 27-day variations than in the above UV case. The lack of 13-day periodicity in the solar 10.7 cm flux is caused by its broad central angle dependence that averages out the 13-day variations and produces nearly sinusoidal 27-day variations. Optically thin full-disk soft X-rays can have 13-day periodicity out of phase with that of the UV flux because the X-ray emission peaks when both groups of active regions are within view, one group at each limb, when the optically thick UV flux is at a rotational minimum. The lack of 13-day periodicity in the strong coronal lines of Fexv at 284 Å and Fexvi at 335 Å during episodes of 13-day periodicity in UV and soft X-ray fluxes shows that the active region emission in these strong lines is not optically thin; resonant scattering is suggested to cause an effective optical depth near unity in these hot coronal lines for active regions near the limb.

Properties of white light flares

All four large EUV bursts (peak 10–1030 Å flux enhancements ⩾ 2 ergs cm−2 s−1 at 1 AU as deduced from sudden frequency deviations), for which there were available concurrent white light observations of at least fair quality, were detected as white light flares. The rise times and maxima of the white light emissions coincided with rise times and maxima of the EUV bursts. The frequency of strong EUV bursts suggests that white light flares may occur at the rate of five or six per year near sunspot maximum. All of the white light flare areas coincided with intense bright areas of the Hα flares. These small areas appeared to be sources of high velocity ejecta in Hα. The white light flares occurred as several knots or patches of 2 to 15 arc-sec diameter, with bright cores perhaps less than 2 arc-sec diameter (1500 km). They preferred the outer penumbral borders of strong sunspots within 10 arc-sec of a longitudinal neutral line in the magnetic field. The peak continuum flux enhancement over the 3500–6500 Å wavelength range is about the same order of magnitude as the peak 10–1030 Å flux enhancement.

Extreme ultraviolet flashes of solar flares observed via sudden frequency deviations: Experimental results

Properties of solar-flare EUV flashes measured via a type of ionospheric event, called a sudden frequency deviation (SFD), are presented. SFDs are sensitive to bursts of radiation in the 1–1030 Å wavelength range. He ii 303.8 Å, O v 629.7 Å, HLγ 972.5 Å and C iii 977.0 Å have essentially the same impulsive time dependence as the 1–1030 Å flash responsible for SFDs. Soft X-rays (2–20 Å) and certain EUV lines have a much slower time dependence than the 1–1030 Å flash. Most SFDs have some fine structure, but marked quasi-periodicity in EUV flashes is quite rare. EUV flashes are closely associated with hard X-ray bursts, white-light emission, microwave radio bursts and small bright impulsive kernels in the Hα flare. The intensity of EUV flashes depends on the central meridian distance of the Hα flare location; the intensity decreases at the limb. The total energy radiated in the 10–1030 Å flash for the largest events observed is about 1031 ergs.

The Solar Ca II K Index and the Mg II Core-To-Wing Ratio

The 1 Å index of the solar Ca II K line is compared with the core-to-wing ratio of satellite measurements of the Mg II h and k lines. The correlation coefficient r = 0.976 for the Nimbus-7 Mg II ratio during solar cycle 21 andr = 0.99 for the NOAA9 Mg II ratio in cycle 22. Linear regression analysis for the full dynamic range of both data sets is used to combine the Nimbus-7 and NOAA9 Mg II data. These relations permit the ground-based Ca K index to estimate the solar UV flux.

The solar UV Mg II core-to-wing ratio from the NOAA9 satellite during the rise of solar cycle 22

Abstract The Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SBUV/2) instrument on the NOAA9 satellite monitors daily the solar UV spectral irradiance in the Mg II h and k lines. The core-to-wing ratio R(MgIIc/w) is presented for 27 May 1986 through 31 May 1988. R(MgIIc/w) has a minimum in both 27-day and 81-day running averages in early Jan 1987 with a secondary minimum in late Aug 1986. Strong 27-day solar-rotational variations peaked in Oct 1986, April and July 1987, and April 1988. The solar-cycle 22 rise in rotational minima started in Feb 1987 and increased to a more rapid rise in Nov 1987 through May 1988. The rotational peak of April 1988 was 4.4% higher than the solar cycle minimum 27-day average, which is a little less than half the decline in R(MgIIc/w) from NIMBUS7 from solar maximum to minimum during solar cycle 21.

The inter-relationship of hard X-ray and EUV bursts during solar flares

A comparison is made between the flux-versus-time profile in the EUV band and the thick target electron flux profile as inferred from hard X-rays for a number of moderately large solar flares. This complements Kane and Donnellys (1971) study of small flares. The hard X-ray data are from ESRO TD-1A and the EUV inferred from SFD observations.Use of a χ2 minimising method shows that the best overall fit between the profile fine structures obtains for synchronism to ≲5 s which is within the timing accuracy. This suggests that neither conduction nor convection is fast enough as the primary mechanism of energy transport into the EUV flare and rather favours heating by the electrons themselves or by some MHD wave process much faster than acoustic waves.The electron power deposited, for a thick target model, is however far greater than the EUV luminosity for any reasonable assumptions about the area and depth over which EUV is emitted. This means that either most of the power deposited is conducted away to the optical flare or that only a fraction ≲1–10% of the X-ray emitting electrons are injected downwards. Recent work on Hα flare heating strongly favours the latter alternative - i.e. that electrons are mostly confined in the corona.

Long-term variations in total solar irradiance

For more than a decade total solar irradiance has been monitored simultaneously from space by different satellites. The detection of total solar irradiance variations by satellite-based experiments during the past decade and a half has stimulated modeling efforts to help identify their causes and to provide estimates of irradiance data, using ‘proxy’ indicators of solar activity, for time intervals when no satellite observations exist. In this paper total solar irradiance observed by the Nimbus-7/ERB, SMM/ACRIM I, and UARS/ACRIM II radiometers is modeled with the Photometric Sunspot Index and the Mg II core-to-wing ratio. Since the formation of the Mg II line is very similar to that of the Ca II K line, the Mg core-to-wing ratio, derived from the irradiance observations of the Nimbus-7 and NOAA9 satellites, is used as a proxy for the bright magnetic elements. It is shown that the observed changes in total solar irradiance are underestimated by the proxy models at the time of maximum and during the beginning of the declining portion of solar cycle 22 similar to behavior just before the maximum of solar cycle 21. This disagreement between total irradiance observations and their model estimates is indicative of the fact that the underlying physical mechanism of the changes observed in the solar radiative output is not well-understood. Furthermore, the uncertainties in the proxy data used for irradiance modeling and the resulting limitation of the models should be taken into account, especially when the irradiance models are used for climatic studies.

The extreme ultraviolet emissions of solar flares: A comparison between OSO-6 spectroheliograph observations and SFDs

The time structure and intensity of OSO-6 observations of EUV bursts were studied in relation to the corresponding 10–1030 Å enhancements deduced from SFD data. Impulsive EUV emissions from lines normally emitted from either the chromosphere or from the chromosphere-corona transition region rise simultaneously with the 10–1030 Å flash, to within the time resolution of the OSO-6 observations. Mg × 625 Å also showed concurrent impulsive emissions and a close intensity relation to the 10–1030 Å enhancement. The observational results are consistent with the hypothesis that most of the EUV radiation is being produced thermally in a region of chromospheric density, which is being heated by collisional losses of nonthermal electrons.

Extreme ultraviolet spectrum of the solar flare of 2114 UT March 27, 1967

Scanning spectrometer measurements in the range 1310–270 Å, observed from the satellite OSO 3, are reported for the solar flare of 2114 UT March 27, 1967. This flare was a long lasting sequence of bursts with EUV spectra consisting of enhanced lines and recombination continua normally emitted from the chromosphere and chromosphere-corona transition region, with unusually small increases in lines normally emited from the corona. An EUV flare spectrum is presented and suggested as one example for interpreting broadband observations of EUV bursts. Any broadband continuum other than known recombination continua contributed less than 6 % of the meassured line and hydrogen recombination continua in the range 270–1310 Å. The ratio of photon flux of Ciii 1176 Å to that of Ciii 977 Å was 0.86, which suggests an ambient density in the region of emission greater than 1012 cm-3 at temperatures near 60000 K.

Modelling solar irradiances using ground-based measurements

Abstract The preliminary results of the photometry of CaK plage remnants show that during the fall of 1986 the remnants gave a significant contribution to the irradiance variations. The contribution of the plage remnants to the combined plage and remnant index was on average about 13 % and it changed with time.