Solar Sources of Flares and CMEs

TL;DR

This review explores the origins and development of active regions on the Sun that produce flares and CMEs, emphasizing observational features, flux emergence simulations, and future high-resolution solar observations.

Contribution

It synthesizes current understanding of solar active regions' complexity, discusses advanced simulation models, and highlights upcoming observational missions for studying solar flares.

Findings

Active regions with high magnetic complexity are prone to flares and CMEs.

Flux emergence simulations reveal subsurface origins of active region complexity.

Future SOLAR-C observations will enhance understanding of flare mechanisms.

Abstract

Strong solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are prone to originate within and near active regions (ARs) with a high magnetic complexity. Therefore, to better understand the generation mechanism of flares and the resultant CME eruption and to gain insight into their stellar counterparts, it is crucial to reveal how solar flare-productive ARs are generated and developed. In this review, first, we summarize some general aspects of solar flares and key observational characteristics of such ARs. Then, we discuss a series of flux emergence simulations that were performed to elucidate the subsurface origins of their complexity and introduce state-of-the-art models that consider the effect of turbulent thermal convection. Future flare observations using SOLAR-C, a next-generation high-throughput extreme ultraviolet spectroscopy mission, are also discussed.