The coupling of an EUV coronal wave and ion acceleration in a Fermi-LAT behind-the-limb solar flare

TL;DR

This paper reports on the first detailed observation of a behind-the-limb solar flare with gamma-ray detection, revealing a coupling between coronal waves and proton acceleration, and suggesting a shared origin for these phenomena.

Contribution

It presents the first joint detection of a distant behind-the-limb flare in gamma-rays and EUV, demonstrating the coupling between coronal waves and proton acceleration in such events.

Findings

The gamma-ray emission lasted for about 16 minutes with high significance.

A coronal wave was observed coinciding with gamma-ray onset.

The data suggest a shared origin for coronal waves and proton acceleration in behind-the-limb flares.

Abstract

We present the Fermi-LAT observations of the behind-the-limb (BTL) flare of July 17, 2021 and the joint detection of this flare by STIX onboard Solar Orbiter. The separation between Earth and the Solar Orbiter was 99.2$^{\circ}$ at 05:00 UT, allowing STIX to have a front view of the flare. The location of the flare was ~S20E140 in Stonyhurst heliographic coordinates making this the most distant behind-the-limb flare ever detected in $>$100 MeV gamma-rays. The LAT detection lasted for $\sim$16 minutes, the peak flux was $ 3.6 \pm 0.8 $ (10$^{-5}$) ph cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ with a significance $>$15$\sigma$. A coronal wave was observed from both STEREO-A and SDO in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) with an onset on the visible disk in coincidence with the LAT onset. A complex type II radio burst was observed by GLOSS also in coincidence with the onset of the LAT emission indicating the presence of a shock wave. We discuss the relation between the time derivative of the EUV wave intensity profile at 193\angstrom\ as observed by STEREO-A and the LAT flux to show that the appearance of the coronal wave at the visible disk and the acceleration of protons as traced by the observed $>$100 MeV gamma-ray emission are coupled. We also report how this coupling is present in the data from 3 other BTL flares detected by Fermi-LAT suggesting that the protons driving the gamma-ray emission of BTL solar flares and the coronal wave share a common origin.