A physical mechanism for the production of solar flares

Abstract

The weakly ionized photospheric layer in the sunspot environment satisfies certain dynamo inequalities (Equations (11) and (13)) resulting in photospheric Hall current systems. The corresponding Joule dissipation is associated with the surrounding plage area. For critical values of the ‘driving’ or convective winds (speeds ⩾ 1 km/s), two stream instability results. The computed energy is of the order of that found in solar flares.