Quasi-Periodic Pulsations in an M-Class Solar Flare

Abstract

We have studied the quasi-periodic pulsations (QPPs) of the M2.3 flare that occurred in the active region NOAA 12172 on 23 September 2014. Through the fast Fourier transform (FFT) method, we decompose the flare light curves into fast- and slowly-varying components, and the cut-off threshold is 100 s. We find that the QPPs have a period of 40 s at soft X-ray (SXR), hard X-ray (HXR), radio and ultraviolet (UV). Based on the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), we find that the QPPs take place at the same time interval as the flare ribbon separation, and that the QPPs seem to originate from the flare ribbons. Our observations tend to support the mechanism of the periodic nonthermal electron injection during the flare eruption.