Comparative study of electric currents and energetic particle fluxes in a solar flare and Earth magnetospheric substorm

TL;DR

This study compares magnetic reconnection-driven current systems and energetic particle fluxes in solar flares and Earth's magnetospheric substorms, highlighting their similarities and correlations through analysis of diverse datasets.

Contribution

It provides a qualitative comparison of current dynamics and energetic particle fluxes in solar flares and substorms, emphasizing their correlated evolution and potential for cross-interpretation.

Findings

Clear correlation between energetic particle bursts and magnetic field reconfiguration.

Similar evolution patterns of current systems in both phenomena.

Insights into how magnetospheric data can inform solar flare analysis.

Abstract

Magnetic field-line reconnection is a universal plasma process responsible for the conversion of magnetic field energy to the plasma heating and charged particle acceleration. Solar flares and Earth's magnetospheric substorms are two most investigated dynamical systems where magnetic reconnection is believed to be responsible for global magnetic field reconfiguration and energization of plasma populations. Such a reconfiguration includes formation of a long-living current systems connecting the primary energy release region and cold dense conductive plasma of photosphere/ionosphere. In both flares and substorms the evolution of this current system correlates with formation and dynamics of energetic particle fluxes. Our study is focused on this similarity between flares and substorms. Using a wide range of datasets available for flare and substorm investigations, we compare qualitatively dynamics of currents and energetic particle fluxes for one flare and one substorm. We showed that there is a clear correlation between energetic particle bursts (associated with energy release due to magnetic reconnection) and magnetic field reconfiguration/formation of current system. We then discuss how datasets of in-situ measurements in the magnetospheric substorm can help in interpretation of datasets gathered for the solar flare.