Exploring 3D reconnection in the context of solar flares

Satyam Agarwal (The University of Alabama in Huntsville)

Wednesday 22nd October 15:00-16:00
Maths 311B

Abstract

Solar flares are believed to be the manifestations of the magnetic reconnection process. The primary effects of reconnection are the dissipation of magnetic energy, its conversion to kinetic energy, and changes in the magnetic topology. We investigated various aspects of 3D reconnection in the context of solar flares. First, we examined whether the changes in the magnetic topology due to reconnection depend on the initial conditions. We carried out data-constrained MHD simulations of a flare, where three different initial conditions were constructed using a force-free and a non force-free extrapolation model. Subsequently, we compared the effects of reconnection across all the simulations and found the results to be nearly independent of the used initial conditions. Second, we explored the evolution of magnetic energy over time at small and large length scales. We performed a MHD simulation of another flare and investigated the evolution of magnetic energy in three sub-volumes of different sizes within the computational box. We found that to realize magnetic energy decay, which is expected during a flare, the considered length scale should be large enough such that the energy transfer inside the volume due to Poynting flux is small. Lastly, we investigated what governs the amount of energy released in a flare? We analyzed reconnection geometries for three flares of GOES B, C, and M-classes, and discovered a heuristic parameter which was found to relate with the GOES measured peak soft X-ray emission of the flares, which suggests that it may be relevant for space-weather applications and merits further investigations.

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