A Database of Magnetic and Thermodynamic Properties of Confined And Eruptive Solar Flares

TL;DR

This study provides a comprehensive database comparing magnetic and thermodynamic properties of confined and eruptive solar flares, revealing key differences in magnetic reconnection rates, size, and location that influence flare behavior.

Contribution

First quantification of thermodynamic and magnetic properties of hundreds of confined and eruptive flares, highlighting differences in reconnection rates and magnetic configurations.

Findings

Confined flares have larger peak magnetic reconnection rates.

Confined flares occur in larger active regions and are more compact.

Reconnection in confined flares involves stronger, lower lying magnetic fields.

Abstract

Solar flares sometimes lead to coronal mass ejections that directly affect the Earth's environment. However, a large fraction of flares, including on solar-type stars, are confined flares. What are the differences in physical properties between confined and eruptive flares? For the first time, we quantify thermodynamic and magnetic properties of hundreds of confined and eruptive flares of GOES class C5.0 and above, 480 flares total. We first analyze large flares of GOES class M1.0 and above observed by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO): 216 flares total, including 103 eruptive and 113 confined flares, from 2010 until 2016 April, we then look at the entire dataset above C5.0 of 480 flares. We compare GOES X-ray thermodynamic flare properties, including peak temperature and emission measure, and active-region and flare-ribbon magnetic field properties, including reconnected magnetic flux and peak reconnection rate. We find that for fixed peak X-ray flux, confined and eruptive flares have similar reconnection fluxes; however, for fixed peak X-ray flux confined flares have on average larger peak magnetic reconnection rates, are more compact, and occur in larger active regions than eruptive flares. These findings suggest that confined flares are caused by reconnection between more compact, stronger, lower lying magnetic-fields in larger active regions that reorganizes smaller fraction of these regions' fields. This reconnection proceeds at faster rates and ends earlier, potentially leading to more efficient flare particle acceleration in confined flares.