CD-ROM supplement for Solar Physics.

"Hard X-ray, ejecta and their associated decimetric emission in solar flares"

by P. Saint-Hilaire (1,2) and Arnold O. Benz (1)

(1): ETHZ Institute of Astronomy, Zurich, Switzerland
(2): Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen, Switzerland.

Contact: Pascal Saint-Hilaire

The following are movies of three M-flares discussed in the paper, as well as some other, lesser flares. Basic images are from TRACE or Yohkoh SXT, with intensity contours (isophotes) from Yohkoh HXT and/or NRH. Usually two versions of each movie are proposed. Both versions should run on all platforms. The MPEG version is quick to load, but some details are smeared. The JAVASCRIPT version has optimal clarity, but takes a bit of time to load, and might strain some systems.

1999/09/08 12:15 M1.4 flare: HXR, ejecta, and decimetric pulsating structures (DCIM)

Images are from TRACE 1600A (4000-10000 K, mainly chromospheric material, and some CIV at 60000-250000 K). Thick colored contours represent isophotes (98% and 99% levels) from the NRH (red=164MHz, orange=236.6MHz, yellow=327MHz, green=410.5MHz, violet=432MHz). The additional, thin red contours appearing near HXR peak flux time, are HXR isophotes (10% increment) from HXT's LO (14-23 keV) channel. Colored text in upper left corner refers to the NRH contours' times and peak pixel-averaged radio brightness temperatures. For time profiles, see Fig. 4 in the text.

The movie (mpeg / javascript) starts shortly before the flare. It can be seen that loop movement and the beginning of the ejection of matter occur before any HXR emission. When the DCIM emission becomes important, the radio sources (high-frequencies first) jump to the AR, and then slowly drift away. Around 12:14, a low-frequency (164/236.6 MHz) type III burst (as identified by the radio spectrogram) occured about 50" southeast of the AR. Around 12:18, a very low-frequency (164 MHz) type III burst occured about 120" west of the AR.

The following is a zoomed-in version (TRACE with HXT contours only):

  • mpeg / javascript

    2000/08/25 14:28 M1.4 flare: HXR, ejecta, and decimetric pulsating structures (DCIM)

    Images are from TRACE's 171A filter (Iron XIX: coronal material around 0.2-2MK). Color code for thick (NRH) contours are as before (90% level contours). Thin red, then orange, then yellow lines are HXT contours, for each of the three main peaks in the HXR flux.
  • Region-of-interest (ROI): mpeg / javascript
    The same as before, but with a wider field-of-view:
  • Wider FOV: mpeg / javascript

    Alternate movie (mpeg) using SXT AlMg images. Red contours are NRH 327 MHz. Notice the ejecting plasmoid, closely followed by the DCIM emission.
    The following are Phoenix-2 and GOES-8 time profiles.

  • Phoenix-2/GOES-8 time profiles
    The spectrogram (Fig. 5 in the text) indicates that the 327 MHz emission originates from a drifting pulsating structure.

    2001/06/15 10:07 M6.3 flare: HXR, ejecta, and decimetric pulsating structures (DCIM)

    Images are from TRACE's 195A filter (Iron XII: coronal material around 0.5-2MK, and possibly Iron XXIV at 11-26MK). NRH contours and their associated text as before. HXT imagery made around 10:21 UT, using HXT's M1 (23-33 keV) channel.
  • wide FOV: mpeg / javascript
  • ROI: mpeg / javascript, showing the ejection in the southeastern direction.
    For the identification of radio features, see Fig. 6.

    As in the 1999/09/08 event, loop movement and the start of the ejection of material is observed to occur before any HXR emission. The radio contours of the 10:07:21 image show the location of the type II burst (southwest of the ejection). The radio contours of the following frames show the location of the DCIM emission occuring after the flare, starting northeast of the ejection, then slowly drifting away. Around 10:10:40, low-frequency type III bursts are observed about 100" southwest of the AR.

    The following movie (javascript), with better contrast, starts near the end of the primary HXR emission. Note loops ascending/expanding in the south-eastern direction. At ~ 10:12:37 (about when primary HXR emission is over), they start to descend/contract towards the AR.

    Other events: HXR, ejecta, and decimetric pulsating structures (DCIM)

    Other, not-so-well-observed events support the conclusions that type III bursts usually occur far from the flaring AR, and that drifting pulsating structures at the same frequency usually start close to the HXR source.

  • 1999/06/12: Phoenix-2/GOES-8 time profiles show the low frequency part of a drifting pulsating structure.
    The movie ( mpeg / javascript) is composed of SXT Al12 images, with NRH contours color-coded as described above (i.e. red=164MHz, etc.). Before the flare, radio emission at all NRH frequencies is weak, and located above another AR, to the right of the soon-to-be flaring region. Shortly after peak HXR flux, the peaks of radio intensities are located above the flaring region. Higher frequencies appear there first, then the lower frequencies. After the flare, the weak radio sources return to their pre-flare locations.

  • 2000/07/12: Phoenix-2/GOES-8 time profiles show drifting pulsating structures from 10:36 to 10:40 UT.
    SXT AlMg images (mpeg movie) are superposed with NRH (thick) and HXT LO channel (thin) contours. NRH contours use the same color scheme as described above (i.e. red=164MHz, etc.). Each peak in the HXR flux is represented by a different contour color.
    From 10:34:27 to 10:35:03, high-frequency (green 410.5 and purple 432 MHz contours) type III bursts are observed about 100" to the northwest of the AR. From 10:37:03 to 10:37:27, the type III burst at 236.6 MHz is located about 90" northeast of the AR.
    10:38:03 and 10:38:15: at peak of the DCIM emission, sources at most frequencies are located very near the AR, with the highest frequencies being closest to the center of the AR.