In order to better understand magnetic reconnection and particle acceleration in solar flares, we compare the RHESSI hard X-ray (HXR) footpoint motions of three flares with a detailed study of the corresponding topology given by a Magnetic Charge Topology (MCT) model. We analyze the relationship between the footpoint motions and topological spine lines and find that the examined footpoint sources move along spine lines. We present a 3D topological model in which that movement can be understood. As reconnection proceeds, flux is transferred between the reconnecting domains, causing the separator to move. The movement of the separator?s chromospheric ends, identified with the HXR footpoints, is along those spine lines on which the separator ends.
Authors: Angela Des Jardins, Richard Canfield, Dana Longcope, Crystal Fordyce, and Scott Waitukaitis
Projects: RHESSI
Publication Status: In press
Last Modified: 2008-11-26 11:50
 
 
Signatures of Magnetic Stress Prior to Three Solar Flares Observed by RHESSI
We examine the hard X-ray (HXR) footpoint sources of three flares, as observed by RHESSI, in combination with the topology given by the extrapolation of line-of-sight magnetograms into the corona. Assuming the HXR footpoint sources are chromospheric consequences of magnetic reconnection that takes place on separators, we further assume a relationship between the build-up of energy in stressed coronal magnetic fields and the measurement of the change in separator flux per unit length. We find that the value of this quantity is larger for the separators that connect the HXR footpoint sources than the quantity for the separators that do not. Therefore, we conclude that we are able to understand the location of HXR sources observed in flares in terms of a physical and mathematical model of the topology of the active region.
Authors: Angela Des Jardins , Richard Canfield, Dana Longcope, Emily McLinden, Amanda Dillman
Projects: RHESSI
Publication Status: ApJ, In press
Last Modified: 2008-11-26 14:06