Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
May 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21640413l&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #216, #404.13; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.901
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Many observational and modeling studies of solar eruptions merely treat photosphere as the lower boundary and assume no significant changes of magnetic fields anchoring there to occur during flares/CMEs. With increasing evidence of photospheric magnetic fields variations resulting from energy release in the upper atmosphere, Hudson, Fisher and Welsch (2008, ASP, 383, 221) proposed that the photosphere and even solar interior would respond in a back-reaction process to the coronal magnetic field restructuring. Inspired by this concept, we analyzed white-light images obtained with TRACE and report here rapid and permanent perturbation in the position of delta spot umbrae associated with five X-class flares. Our main results are the following: (1) The centroids of umbrae with opposite magnetic polarities undergo relative as well as overall displacement on the order of 1E3 km after flares/CMEs. (2) The estimated total kinetic energy associated with these motions (Ek) is on the order of 1E29 ergs and appears to correlate with the 6 mHZ seismic energy (Es) derived by the Monash group. (3) There appears correlation between both the Ek and Es corresponding to the velocity of CMEs. We suggest that: (1) sunspot displacement provides a direct observational evidence of the photospheric back-reaction and could potentially serve as an alternative excitation mechanism of seismic waves; (2) These could provide rational support to the back-reaction mechanism in the sense that its magnitude might be related to how violent the coronal magnetic field is disrupted. For selected events with good multiwavelength coverage, we also analyze in detail spatial as well as temporal relationship among the sunspot displacement, magnetic field changes, seismic sources, hard X-ray emissions, and overall flaring condition. This work is supported by NSF grants ATM 08-19662 and ATM 07-45744, and NASA grants NNX 08AQ90G, NNX 07AH78G, and NNX 08AQ32G.
Deng Nimao
Liu Chang
Wang Hai-Hong
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