Analysis of sudden variations in photospheric magnetic fields during a large flare and their influences in the solar atmosphere

Abstract

The solar active region NOAA 11719 produced a large two-ribbon flare on 2013 April 11. We have investigated sudden variations in the photospheric magnetic fields in this active region during the flare by employing magnetograms obtained in the spectral line Fe I 6173 Å acquired by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) spacecraft. The analysis of the line-of-sight magnetograms from HMI show sudden and persistent magnetic field changes at different locations of the active region before the onset of the flare and during the flare. The vector magnetic field observations available from HMI also show coincident variations in the total magnetic field strength and its inclination angle at these locations. Using the simultaneous Dopplergrams obtained from HMI, we observe perturbations in the photospheric Doppler signals following the sudden changes in the magnetic fields in the aforementioned locations. The power spectrum analysis of these velocity signals shows enhanced acoustic power in these affected locations during the flare as compared to the pre-flare condition. Accompanying these observations, we have also used nearly simultaneous chromospheric observations obtained in the spectral line Hα 6562.8 Å by the Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) to study the evolution of flare-ribbons and intensity oscillations in this active region. The Hα intensity oscillations also show enhanced oscillatory power during the flare in the aforementioned locations. These results indicate that the transient Lorentz force associated with sudden changes in the magnetic fields could drive localized photospheric and chromospheric oscillations, like the flare-induced oscillations in the solar atmosphere.