M flare ejecta and loop filling

Science Nugget: May 08, 1998

At approximately 21:17 UT on 3-may-98, active region NOAA 8210 produced an M-class flare. Yohkoh was able to observe the event successfully, and for this week's Nugget we present some pictures.

A quick way to survey the hard X-rays produced in the event is provided by a set of light curves from HXT (below). The result here is interesting, because the spectrum is extremely hard and the event has a long duration. (Click on the graphs to see a larger version.)
 

 

When Flare Mode is triggered, SXT begins making images in a somewhat different manner than in Quiet Mode. The flare images are typically at a higher cadence (i.e., more images per minute), and also include some lower-resolution images to show a somewhat wider field of view. The links below will show you movies made from the half-resolution and quarter-resolution images, which give us a chance to look for material ejected from the flare site. The M flare of 3-may-98, the subject of these movies, threw off some visible, "clumpy" ejecta.
 

Quarter-resolution movie
Half-resolution movie
 

Note that there is quite a lot of pixel saturation in these images. But that won't keep you from seeing the ejecta.

 Finally, a look at the Half-resolution images with a different color palette allows us to emphasize the filling of coronal loops near the flare site. Keep your eyes on the region just to the southwest (lower-right) of the central portion of the flare. Loop that are initially invisible fill in and brighten to the point where the image begins to saturate.
 

Loop-filling movie


David McKenzie and Hugh Hudson, 08-May-98 (email mckenzie@isass0.solar.isas.ac.jp). For a summary index listing of the weekly science reports, click here.