Thermal Trigger for Solar Flares III: Effect of the Oblique Layer Fragmentation

TL;DR

This paper investigates how oblique fragmentation of the current layer, caused by thermal instability, affects the spatial scale of energy release in solar flares, showing it can significantly reduce the estimated size of energy release regions.

Contribution

It demonstrates that oblique fragmentation occurs naturally and can alter the estimated spatial period of energy release in solar flare models.

Findings

Oblique fragmentation is a natural feature of the model.

Fragmentation tilt is usually a few degrees for realistic parameters.

Oblique fragmentation can reduce the estimated spatial period of energy release to 0.1-1 Mm.

Abstract

We consider the oblique fragmentation of the current layer as a result of the thermal instability described in Ledentsov (Sol. Phys. 296, 74, 2021a). It is shown that the fragmentation transverse to the current is a natural feature of the model. The fragmentation tilt does not exceed a few degrees for realistic preflare parameters of the coronal plasma. As a consequence, oblique fragmentation generally does not have a strong impact on the simulation results, however, extreme changes can reach an order of magnitude. Thus, oblique fragmentation can lead to a decrease in the estimate of the spatial period of the location of elementary energy release in solar flares to 0.1-1 Mm instead of 1-10 Mm obtained earlier.