On Flare Driven Global Waves

TL;DR

This paper explores the correlation between solar flares and high-frequency solar oscillations, suggesting flares can drive global waves and potentially enable remote flare detection on the Sun and other stars.

Contribution

It presents evidence of a correlation between flare energy and high-frequency solar oscillations, proposing a new method for flare detection and raising questions about the underlying physics.

Findings

Strong correlation between high-frequency acoustic energy and X-ray flux.

Flares may drive global solar oscillations similar to seismic waves after earthquakes.

Potential for using oscillation data to detect flares on the far side of the Sun.

Abstract

We recently presented evidence of a strong correlation between the energy in the high-frequency part of the acoustic spectrum of the Sun and the solar X-ray flux Karoff & Kjeldsen (2008). The discovery indicates that flares drive global oscillations in the Sun in the same way that the entire Earth is set ringing for several weeks after a major earthquake, such as the 2004 December Sumatra-Andaman one. If this indication turns out to be true we might be able to use the relation between flares and the energy in the high-frequency part of the acoustic spectrum to detect e.g. flares on the far side of the Sun and flares on other solar-like stars. But, the discovery also opens many new questions such as why is it only the high-frequency part of the acoustic spectrum that is correlated with the X-ray flux? And, are there energy enough in solar flares do drive global oscillations?