Disentangling Thermal and Abundance Characteristics in a Solar Flare Using SDO/AIA, Hinode/XRT, and MinXSS-1 Observations

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Auteurs principaux: Xie, Xiaoyan, Chen, Anna, Suarez, Crisel, Reeves, Katharine K., Roy, Soumya, Moore, Christopher S., Karna, Nishu, Velasquez, Joy
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Xie, Xiaoyan
Chen, Anna
Suarez, Crisel
Reeves, Katharine K.
Roy, Soumya
Moore, Christopher S.
Karna, Nishu
Velasquez, Joy
author_facet Xie, Xiaoyan
Chen, Anna
Suarez, Crisel
Reeves, Katharine K.
Roy, Soumya
Moore, Christopher S.
Karna, Nishu
Velasquez, Joy
contents We investigate the thermal properties of a solar flare by the observations of soft X-ray Telescope (XRT) on board Hinode and the Atmospheric Image Assembly on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO/AIA). Our analysis reveals a tenuous but hot plasma cloud located above the flare loops. The flare loops and plasma cloud exhibit independent temperature profiles as a function of time, implying different heating mechanisms are present in these structures. We interpret the plasma cloud as an eruptive filament directly heated in the corona via magnetic reconnection that occurs when a rising filament interacts with this eruptive filament. Previous disk-integrated solar soft X-ray spectral measurements of this flare using the Miniature X-ray Solar Spectrometer CubeSat-1 (MinXSS-1) inferred coronal abundances at the flare peak. However, MinXSS synthetic spectra from AIA observations show that the plasma cloud is too tenuous to be detected in MinXSS-1 and thus the coronal abundances of low FIP elements must be in emission from the flare loops. Furthermore, we demonstrate the non-negligible differences in differential emission measures (DEMs) between coronal and photospheric abundance models. These results highlight the importance of instruments capable of simultaneous spectral and spatial diagnostics during large-scale solar events. Such coordinated measurements would enable more accurate thermal and compositional analyses and deeper insight into the underlying physical mechanisms.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_18156
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Disentangling Thermal and Abundance Characteristics in a Solar Flare Using SDO/AIA, Hinode/XRT, and MinXSS-1 Observations
Xie, Xiaoyan
Chen, Anna
Suarez, Crisel
Reeves, Katharine K.
Roy, Soumya
Moore, Christopher S.
Karna, Nishu
Velasquez, Joy
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
We investigate the thermal properties of a solar flare by the observations of soft X-ray Telescope (XRT) on board Hinode and the Atmospheric Image Assembly on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO/AIA). Our analysis reveals a tenuous but hot plasma cloud located above the flare loops. The flare loops and plasma cloud exhibit independent temperature profiles as a function of time, implying different heating mechanisms are present in these structures. We interpret the plasma cloud as an eruptive filament directly heated in the corona via magnetic reconnection that occurs when a rising filament interacts with this eruptive filament. Previous disk-integrated solar soft X-ray spectral measurements of this flare using the Miniature X-ray Solar Spectrometer CubeSat-1 (MinXSS-1) inferred coronal abundances at the flare peak. However, MinXSS synthetic spectra from AIA observations show that the plasma cloud is too tenuous to be detected in MinXSS-1 and thus the coronal abundances of low FIP elements must be in emission from the flare loops. Furthermore, we demonstrate the non-negligible differences in differential emission measures (DEMs) between coronal and photospheric abundance models. These results highlight the importance of instruments capable of simultaneous spectral and spatial diagnostics during large-scale solar events. Such coordinated measurements would enable more accurate thermal and compositional analyses and deeper insight into the underlying physical mechanisms.
title Disentangling Thermal and Abundance Characteristics in a Solar Flare Using SDO/AIA, Hinode/XRT, and MinXSS-1 Observations
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.18156