High‐Resolution Observations of Multiwavelength Emissions during Two X‐Class White‐Light Flares

Abstract

We observed two X-class white-light flares (WLFs) on 2003 October 29 (~20:40 UT) and November 2 (~17:16 UT) using the Dunn Solar Telescope (DST) and its High-Order Adaptive Optics (HOAO) system in several wavelengths. The spatial resolution was close to the diffraction limit of DST's 76 cm aperture, and the cadence was as high as 2 s. This is the first time that WLFs have been observed in the near-infrared (NIR) wavelength region. We present a detailed study in this paper comparing photospheric continuum observations during the two events with corresponding line-of-sight magnetograms from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) and hard X-ray (HXR) data from the Ramaty High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI). We also discuss several models that provide possible mechanisms to explain these continuum enhancements, especially in the NIR.