Solar Irradiance Variability Due To Solar Flares Observed in Lyman-alpha Emission

TL;DR

This study analyzes how solar flares of different classes affect Lyman-alpha irradiance, revealing that weaker flares cause minimal increases, while stronger flares can produce up to 4% enhancements, with variations depending on their position on the Sun.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of Lyman-alpha response to a large number of solar flares across classes B to X, highlighting the magnitude of irradiance changes and center-to-limb effects.

Findings

Weak flares (B and C class) cause 0.1-0.3% Lyman-alpha increases.

Strong flares (M and X class) cause 1-4% Lyman-alpha increases.

Lyman-alpha enhancement diminishes near the solar limb.

Abstract

As the Lyman-alpha (Lya) line of neutral hydrogen is the brightest emission line in the solar spectrum, detecting increases in irradiance due to solar flares at this wavelength can be challenging due to the very high background. Previous studies that have focused on the largest flares have shown that even these extreme cases generate enhancements in Lya of only a few percent above the background. In this study, a superposed-epoch analysis was performed on ~8500 flares greater than B1 class to determine the contribution that flares make to changes in the solar EUV irradiance. Using the peak of the 1-8A X-ray emission as a fiducial time, the corresponding time series of 3123 B- and 4972 C-class flares observed in Lya emission by the EUV Sensor on GOES-15 were averaged to reduce background fluctuations and improve the flare signal. The summation of these weaker events showed that they produced a 0.1-0.3% enhancement to the solar Lya irradiance. For comparison on average, the same technique was applied to 453 M- and 31 X-class flares, which resulted in a 1-4% increase in Lya emission. Flares were also averaged with respect to their heliographic angle to investigate any potential center-to-limb variation. For each GOES class, the relative enhancement in Lya at the flare peak was found to diminish for flares that occurred closer to the solar limb due to the opacity of the line, and/or foreshortening of the footpoints. One modest event included in the study, a C6.6 flare, exhibited an unusually high increase in Lya of 7% that may have been attributed to a failed filament eruption. Increases of this magnitude have hitherto only been associated with a small number of X-class flares.