Bright 30 THz Impulsive Solar Bursts

TL;DR

This paper reports the detection of impulsive 30 THz solar bursts, their correlation with other flare emissions, and discusses their significance as a new observational window for solar flare studies.

Contribution

It introduces the observation of impulsive 30 THz bursts in solar flares and explores their correlation with other flare emissions, highlighting their potential for new insights.

Findings

30 THz bursts are highly intense, exceeding microwave and sub-mm fluxes.

30 THz emissions correlate well with white light flare emissions.

These bursts may represent a new spectral component of solar flares.

Abstract

Impulsive 30 THz continuum bursts have been recently observed in solar flares, utilizing small telescopes with a unique and relatively simple optical setup concept. The most intense burst was observed together with a GOES X2 class event on October 27, 2014, also detected at two sub-THz frequencies, RHESSI X-rays and SDO/HMI and EUV. It exhibits strikingly good correlation in time and in space with white light flare emission. It is likely that this association may prove to be very common. All three 30 THz events recently observed exhibited intense fluxes in the range of 104 solar flux units, considerably larger than those measured for the same events at microwave and sub-mm wavelengths. The 30 THz burst emission might be part of the same spectral burst component found at sub-THz frequencies. The 30 THz solar bursts open a promising new window for the study of flares at their origin