Soft X-ray Spectral Diagnostics of Multi-thermal Plasma in Solar Flares with Chandrayaan-2 XSM

TL;DR

This study uses Chandrayaan-2 XSM soft X-ray spectral data to analyze plasma temperature distributions in solar flares, revealing multi-thermal components and element abundance variations during flare evolution.

Contribution

It demonstrates that flare plasma during the impulsive phase is best modeled with multi-thermal DEM distributions, challenging the isothermal assumption and providing insights into plasma heating and element dynamics.

Findings

Impulsive phase spectra are inconsistent with isothermal models.

Double-peaked DEMs indicate multi-thermal plasma components.

Element abundances vary, supporting chromospheric evaporation.

Abstract

Spectroscopic observations in X-ray wavelengths provide excellent diagnostics of the temperature distribution in solar flare plasma. The Solar X-ray Monitor (XSM) onboard the Chandrayaan-2 mission provides broad-band disk integrated soft X-ray solar spectral measurements in the energy range of 1-15 keV with high spectral resolution and time cadence. In this study, we analyse X-ray spectra of three representative GOES C-class flares obtained with the XSM to investigate the evolution of various plasma parameters during the course of the flares. Using the soft X-ray spectra consisting of the continuum and well-resolved line complexes of major elements like Mg, Si, and Fe, we investigate the validity of the isothermal and multi-thermal assumptions on the high temperature components of the flaring plasma. We show that the soft X-ray spectra during the impulsive phase of the high intensity flares are inconsistent with isothermal models and are best fitted with double peaked differential emission measure distributions where the temperature of the hotter component rises faster than that of the cooler component. The two distinct temperature components observed in DEM models during the impulsive phase of the flares suggest the presence of the directly heated plasma in the corona and evaporated plasma from the chromospheric footpoints. We also find that the abundances of low FIP elements Mg, Si, and Fe reduces from near coronal to near photospheric values during the rising phase of the flare and recovers back to coronal values during decay phase, which is also consistent with the chromospheric evaporation scenario.