| Presentation Title: | Analyzing and Modeling Shear of Post-Reconnection Flare Loops |
| Author(s): | Allison Snyder, Jiong Qiu |
Abstract:
Solar flares are events of increased radiation caused by heated plasmas confined in magnetic loops formed by magnetic reconnection. Astronomers have been attempting to observe and model flare loops for many decades. Previous investigations of solar flare loops have observed strong to weak shear as a phenomenon. Shear is the complementary angle between the projected flare loop and the polarity inversion line that divides the positive and negative magnetic fields on the surface of the Sun. However, 2D magnetic models of flare loops cannot account for shear. This necessitates a quantitative analysis of shear over time and a comparison of loop observations to 3D magnetic models. In this project, working with AIA’s observations of the X1.0 flare on October 28th, 2021 in three different bandpasses, many thousands of flare loops were tracked to calculate the shear over time. These observations confirm the trend of strong to weak shear in this flare as the flare progresses. Additionally, these observed loops were compared to a potential field and linear force free models which did not align with all the observed loops. This suggests that the magnetic field model must be further advanced to match the observed flare loops and explain the phenomenon of shear.