Modelling and Multi-wavelength Observations of Solar Flare Heating

Our Sun is perceived to be a fairly benevolent star, bathing our planet in live-giving heat and light. But every 11 years or so, its behaviour changes, from quiescent to turbulent and back again. During periods of increased activity the Sun's twisted and contorted magnetic field continually undergoes episodes of complex reconfiguration to liberate vast quantities of pent-up energy. This energy goes into heating the solar plasma to temperatures of tens of millions of degrees and accelerating particles to near-relativistic velocities. Precisely how this energy conversation takes place remains an open question, and I aim to tackle this problem over the course of this Fellowship by capitalising upon the most advanced theoretical models and observational datasets currently available.

Modern society is becoming increasingly dependent upon evermore advanced technologies. These systems, such as satellite communication, national power grids, and the Global Positioning System (GPS), are all susceptible to changes in the Sun's behaviour; more commonly referred to as space weather. Space weather typically comprises two phenomena: solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). CMEs are clouds of charged particles ejected off the Sun at millions of miles per hour, reaching the Earth in 2-3 days, where they can interfere with electrical systems and generate spectacular aurora, while solar flares are intense bursts of radiation that span the entire electromagnetic spectrum from radio waves to gamma-rays. This radiation traverses the Sun-Earth distance in just 8 minutes, and the ultraviolet (UV) component is known to change the composition and dynamics of our atmosphere. This can affect the motion of satellites in low Earth orbit, disrupt long-wave radio communication, and affect the transmission of GPS signals.

During solar flares, much of the UV radiation is emitted by the chromosphere; a dense layer between the Sun's visible photosphere and the tenuous outer corona. The chromosphere is also where the bulk of a flare's energy emanates during its initial stages, and is the origin of material that occupies the overlying coronal loops. However, the mechanism by which the released energy gets transferred to the lower solar atmosphere remains elusive. It is commonly assumed that the delivery mechanism is a beam of high-energy electrons, and yet these particles are unable to penetrate to the depths at which the most energetic emission is believed to originate. Other proposed processes include heat conduction, relativistic ions, magnetic waves, or radiative backwarming. Fortunately, much of the radiation emitted contains a wealth of diagnostic information with which to probe the heated plasma. This allows us to distinguish between various heating mechanisms by measuring changes in temperature, density, velocity, etc, and comparing them to the predictions of theory.

While solar flares may emit radiation across the entire spectrum, our spectral coverage is somewhat lacking in parts. Most remote sensing instruments - both in space and on the ground - are often designed to look at a very limited wavelength range. Therefore in order to build a more complete picture of the flaring solar atmosphere, coordinated observations between different instruments are crucial. A core goal of this research is therefore to search for and catalog flaring events observed by a variety of instruments simultaneously, as well as planning future coordinated observing campaigns. For parts of the spectrum that are not yet observable, outputs from numerical simulations shall be used to fill in the gaps. This will help to prepare for instrumentation that will come online during the course of the project. Similarly, there are regions of stellar flare spectra that are unobservable due to absorption by the interstellar medium. The outcomes of this research shall assist in characterising this emission on other stars, especially that which can affect exoplanet atmospheres.