A Statistical Survey of Faint Solar X-ray Transients Observed by NuSTAR

TL;DR

This paper presents the first statistical survey of NuSTAR solar X-ray transients, analyzing 113 events to understand their properties and differences between quiet Sun and active regions.

Contribution

It provides the first direct comparison of weakly energetic solar X-ray transients from quiet Sun and active regions using NuSTAR data.

Findings

NuSTAR transients are cooler, dimmer, and have steeper spectra than RHESSI microflares.

Active region transient energy content is independent of plasma volume.

Quiet Sun transients have lower energy, smaller volumes, and are cool but bright.

Abstract

In this paper, we use a highly sensitive telescope to characterize solar X-ray transients ranging from microflares in active regions down to weakly energetic brightenings in the quiet Sun. X-rays are closely linked to the initial energy release and immediate heating of solar flares, making them invaluable in understanding their driving processes. NuSTAR is the first long-term, direct focusing hard X-ray observatory to have observed the Sun, offering a unique opportunity to search for and characterize X-ray events from inside and outside active regions that would be otherwise unobservable. We present the first statistical survey of NuSTAR solar observations, characterizing the thermal and possibly nonthermal properties of 113 weakly energetic transients down to $10^{26}$ erg, making this the first to directly compare events from the quiet Sun to those in active regions. Relative to RHESSI microflares, our NuSTAR transients are generally cooler, dimmer, and have slightly steeper spectra. Thermal energy content of active region transients appears to be independent of the volume of emitting plasma for transients produced by active regions. This is in contrast to those from the quiet corona, which on average have lower energy content, smaller emission volumes, and appear cool but bright rather than hot but dim, suggesting a break in trends from traditional microflares. We found no quiet Sun transients with a thermal energy content above $3^{27}$ erg, implying an upper limit on the amount of energy released in plasma above 3 MK by quiescent processes.