Kinetic Alfvén waves in preflare plasma

Abstract

Low-frequency instabilities of plasma waves in the arch structures in solar active regions have been investigated before a flare. In the framework of mechanism of “direct initiation” of instability by slowly increasing (quasi-static) large-scale electric field in a loop the dispersion relation has been studied for the perturbations which propagate almost perpendicularly to the magnetic field of the loop. The case has been considered, when amplitude of weak (“subdreicer”) electric field sharply increases before a flare, low-frequency instability develops on the background of ion-acoustic turbulence and thickness of this turbulent plasma layer plays the role of mean characteristic scale of inhomogeneity of plasma density. If the values of the main plasma parameters, i.e. temperature, density, magnetic field amplitude allow to neglect the influence of the shear of magnetic strength lines on the instability development, then two types of the waves can be generated in preflare plasma: the kinetic Alfvén waves and some new kind of the waves from the range of slowly magneto-acoustic ones. Instability of kinetic Alfvén waves has clearly expressed threshold character with respect to the amplitude of “subdreicer” electric field. This fact seems to be useful for the short-time prediction of a flare in arch structure. (© 2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)