Particle Acceleration In Plasmoid Ejections Derived From Radio Drifting Pulsating Structures

TL;DR

This study analyzes radio spectrograph data to classify drifting pulsating structures (DPS) in solar flares, linking them to plasmoid ejections, particle acceleration, and magnetic reconnection processes.

Contribution

It provides a detailed classification of DPS events and correlates their spectral features with physical parameters of plasmoid ejections and reconnection rates.

Findings

DPS events are often associated with X-ray bursts.

Constant frequency drift indicates constant plasmoid velocity.

Reconnection rate correlates positively with plasmoid velocity.

Abstract

We report observations of slowly drifting pulsating structures (DPS) in the 0.8-4.5 GHz frequency range of the RT4 and RT5 radio spectrographs at Ondrejov observatory, between 2002 and 2012. We found 106 events of drifting pulsating structures, which we classified into 4 cases: (I) single events with a constant frequency drift [12 events], (II) multiple events occurring in the same flare with constant frequency drifts [11 events], (III) single or multiple events with increasing or decreasing frequency drift rates [52 events], and (IV) complex events containing multiple events occurring at the same time in the different frequency range [31 events]. Many DPSs are associated with hard X-ray bursts (15-25 keV) and soft X-ray gradient peaks, as they typically occurred at the beginning of the hard X-ray peaks. This indicates that DPS events are related to the processes of fast energy release and particle acceleration. Furthermore, interpreting DPSs as signatures of plasmoids, we measured their ejection velocity, their width and their height from the DPS spectra, from which we also estimated the reconnection rate and the plasma beta. In this interpretation, constant frequency drift indicates a constant velocity of a plasmoid, and an increasing/decreasing frequency drift indicates a deceleration/acceleration of a plasmoid ejection. The reconnection rate shows a good positive correlation with the plasmoid velocity. Finally we confirmed that some DPS events show plasmoid counterparts in AIA/SDO images.