Avalanches and the distribution of solar flares

Abstract

view Abstract Citations (557) References (18) Co-Reads Similar Papers Volume Content Graphics Metrics Export Citation NASA/ADS Avalanches and the Distribution of Solar Flares Lu, Edward T. ; Hamilton, Russell J. Abstract The solar coronal magnetic field is proposed to be in a self-organized critical state, thus explaining the observed power-law dependence of solar-flare-occurrence rate on flare size which extends over more than five orders of magnitude in peak flux. The physical picture that arises is that solar flares are avalanches of many small reconnection events, analogous to avalanches of sand in the models published by Bak and colleagues in 1987 and 1988. Flares of all sizes are manifestations of the same physical processes, where the size of a given flare is determined by the number of elementary reconnection events. The relation between small-scale processes and the statistics of global-flare properties which follows from the self-organized magnetic-field configuration provides a way to learn about the physics of the unobservable small-scale reconnection processes. A simple lattice-reconnection model is presented which is consistent with the observed flare statistics. The implications for coronal heating are discussed and some observational tests of this picture are given. Publication: The Astrophysical Journal Pub Date: October 1991 DOI: 10.1086/186180 Bibcode: 1991ApJ...380L..89L Keywords: Plasma Dynamics; Solar Corona; Solar Flares; Solar Magnetic Field; Magnetic Field Configurations; Magnetic Field Reconnection; Solar Cycles; Solar X-Rays; Solar Physics; MAGNETIC FIELDS; PLASMAS; STARS: FLARE; SUN: ACTIVITY; SUN: CORONA; SUN: FLARES; SUN: MAGNETIC FIELDS; SUN: X-RAYS full text sources ADS |