A Comparative Study of the Eruptive and Non-Eruptive Flares Produced by the Largest Active Region of Solar Cycle 24

TL;DR

This study compares eruptive and non-eruptive flares in solar active region NOAA 12192, revealing magnetic and morphological differences that influence whether flares produce coronal mass ejections, with implications for understanding solar eruption mechanisms.

Contribution

It provides a detailed comparative analysis of magnetic and morphological features distinguishing eruptive from non-eruptive flares in a major solar active region.

Findings

Confined flares show smaller magnetic field changes than eruptive flares.

Eruptive flares are associated with a lower height of the decay index for torus instability.

Magnetic decay rate influences CME productivity of active regions.

Abstract

We investigate the morphological and magnetic characteristics of solar active region (AR) NOAA 12192. AR 12192 was the largest region of Solar Cycle 24; it underwent noticeable growth and produced 6 X-class flares, 22 M-class flares, and 53 C-class flares in the course of its disc passage. However, the most peculiar fact of this AR is that it was associated with only one CME in spite of producing several X-class flares. In this work, we carry out a comparative study between the eruptive and non-eruptive flares produced by AR 12192. We find that the magnitude of abrupt and permanent changes in the horizontal magnetic field and Lorentz force are significantly smaller in the case of the confined flares compared to the eruptive one. We present the areal evolution of AR 12192 during its disc passage. We find the flare-related morphological changes to be weaker during the confined flares, whereas the eruptive flare exhibits a rapid and permanent disappearance of penumbral area away from the magnetic neutral line after the flare. Furthermore, from the extrapolated nonlinear force-free magnetic field, we examine the overlying coronal magnetic environment over the eruptive and non-eruptive zones of the AR. We find that the critical decay index for the onset of torus instability was achieved at a lower height over the eruptive flaring region, than for the non-eruptive core area. These results suggest that the decay rate of the gradient of overlying magnetic field strength may play a decisive role to determine the CME productivity of the AR. In addition, the magnitude of changes in the flare-related magnetic characteristics are found to be well correlated with the nature of solar eruptions.