Seismic Emissions from a Highly Impulsive M6.7 Solar Flare

TL;DR

This study detects and analyzes seismic emissions from a highly impulsive M6.7 solar flare, revealing a strong correlation between seismic activity and impulsive emissions, and suggesting low-altitude magnetic loops influence flare seismicity.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed helioseismic analysis of a low-energy flare with detectable seismic signals, linking seismic sources to impulsive emissions and magnetic loop structures.

Findings

Seismic signatures are strongly correlated with impulsive hard X-ray and visible continuum emissions.

The seismic source is compact and coincides spatially with impulsive emissions.

A low-altitude magnetic loop structure is associated with increased flare seismicity.

Abstract

On 10 March 2001 the active region NOAA 9368 produced an unusually impulsive solar flare in close proximity to the solar limb. This flare has previously been studied in great detail, with observations classifying it as a type 1 white-light flare with a very hard spectrum in hard X-rays. The flare was also associated with a type II radio burst and coronal mass ejection. The flare emission characteristics appeared to closely correspond with previous instances of seismic emission from acoustically active flares. Using standard local helioseismic methods, we identified the seismic signatures produced by the flare that, to date, is the least energetic (in soft X-rays) of the flares known to have generated a detectable acoustic transient. Holographic analysis of the flare shows a compact acoustic source strongly correlated with the impulsive hard X-ray, visible continuum, and radio emission. Time-distance diagrams of the seismic waves emanating from the flare region also show faint signatures, mainly in the eastern sector of the active region. The strong spatial coincidence between the seismic source and the impulsive visible continuum emission reinforces the theory that a substantial component of the seismic emission seen is a result of sudden heating of the low photosphere associated with the observed visible continuum emission. Furthermore, the low-altitude magnetic loop structure inferred from potential--field extrapolations in the flaring region suggests that there is a significant inverse correlation between the seismicity of a flare and the height of the magnetic loops that conduct the particle beams from the corona.