The flare productivity of active regions

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

Scientific paper

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[7519] Solar Physics, Astrophysics, And Astronomy / Flares

Scientific paper

Previous studies have shown that the flare frequency distribution is consistent with a power-law. Furthermore, studies have shown that regions of higher magnetic complexity produce more large flares. This may imply that the flare frequency distribution is harder for magnetically complex active regions. However, the relationship between source active regions' magnetic complexity and the flare size distribution has not been extensively studied. We present a new study of 25,000 microflares detected by the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) from March 2002 to February 2007. For each flare, we have obtained the two classifications of magnetic complexity, the Mount Wilson Magnetic Classification and the Zurich/McIntosh Sunspot Classification, from the Solar Region Summary prepared by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/ Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), and compared them with the RHESSI flare size distribution as observed in the 12 to 25 keV energy range. We find that, for both the Mount Wilson Magnetic Classification and the Zurich/McIntosh Sunspot Classification, the slopes of the microflare size distribution tend to get harder as a function of magnetic complexity. For example, in Mount Wilson Magnetic Classification the slope for α regions was 1.66 and the slope for βγδ region was 1.51.This suggests that βγδ regions are 50 % more likely to produce X class flares than α regions.

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