Magnetic energy release in interacting loops observed in a solar flare from Sylab

Abstract

We studied the energy release morphology in the 21 January 1974 flare observed in the XUV wavelength from Skylab . The XUV images of the flare show that the magnetic configuration consisted of a large cool loop (10 4 – 10 5 K) and a small low-lying high temperature (> 10 7 K) loop. The interaction between the loops, indicated by a hard X-ray burst, triggered the release of stored energy in the two loops. In the large cooler loop, the energy release was manifested in a possible kink instability, which released the stored energy as kinetic energy of motion. In the low lying loop, the energy release was manifested in the heating of the plasma, thus producing the high temperature emissions as observed in Fe XXIV. The observation illustrates clearly the involvement of a multiloop system in the flare energy release and shows that individual loops may undergo different evolutions due to the different conditions in them. This picture is consistent with the flare energy release scenario deduced from the most recent SMM observations /1/.