山崎 大輝

Abstract Unstable states of the solar coronal magnetic field structure result in various flare behaviors. In this study, we compared the confined and eruptive flares that occurred under similar magnetic circumstances in the active region 12673, on 2017 September 6, using the twist number, decay index, and height of magnetic field lines to identify observational behaviors of the flare eruption. We investigated the parameters from the magnetic field lines involved in an initial energy release, which were identified from the positions of the core of flare ribbons, i.e., flare kernels. The magnetic field lines were derived by nonlinear force-free field modeling calculated from the photospheric vector magnetic field obtained by the Solar Dynamics Observatory SDO/Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager, and flare kernels were identified from the 1600 Å data obtained by the SDO/Atmospheric Imaging Assembly. The twist number of all the magnetic field lines in the confined flare was below 0.6; however, the twist number in seven out of 24 magnetic field lines in the eruptive flare was greater than 0.6. These lines were tall. It is found that the decay index is not a clear discriminator of the confined and eruptive flares. Our study suggests that some magnetic field lines in the kink instability state may be important for eruptive flares, and that taller magnetic field lines may promote flare eruption.

Solar filaments are dense and cool plasma clouds in the solar corona. They are supposed to be supported in a dip of coronal magnetic field. However, the models are still under argument between two types of the field configuration; one is the normal polarity model proposed by Kippenhahn & Schlueter (1957), and the other is the reverse polarity model proposed by Kuperus & Raadu (1974). To understand the mechanism that the filaments become unstable before the eruption, it is critical to know the magnetic structure of solar filaments. In this study, we performed the spectro-polarimetric observation in the He I (10830 angstrom) line to investigate the magnetic field configuration of dark filaments. The observation was carried out with the Domeless Solar Telescope at Hida Observatory with a polarization sensitivity of 3.0x10^-4. We obtained 8 samples of filaments in quiet region. As a result of the analysis of full Stokes profiles of filaments, we found that the field strengths were estimated as 8 - 35 Gauss. By comparing the direction of the magnetic field in filaments and the global distribution of the photospheric magnetic field, we determined the magnetic field configuration of the filaments, and we concluded that 1 out of 8 samples have normal polarity configuration, and 7 out of 8 have reverse polarity configuration.

Small flares frequently occur in the quiet Sun. Previous studies have noted that they share many common characteristics with typical solar flares in active regions. However, their similarities and differences are not fully understood, especially their thermal properties. In this study, we performed imaging spectroscopic observations in the H$\alpha$ line taken with the Solar Dynamics Doppler Imager on the Solar Magnetic Activity Research Telescope (SMART/SDDI) at the Hida Observatory and imaging observations with the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly onboard Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO/AIA). We analysed 25 cases of small flares in the quiet Sun over the thermal energy range of $10^{24}-10^{27}\,\mathrm{erg}$, paying particular attention to their thermal properties. Our main results are as follows: (1) We observe a redshift together with line centre brightening in the H$\alpha$ line associated with more than half of the small flares. (2) We employ differential emission measure analysis using AIA multi-temperature (channel) observations to obtain the emission measure and temperature of the small flares. The results are consistent with the Shibata & Yokoyama (1999, 2002) scaling law. From the scaling law, we estimated the coronal magnetic field strength of small flares to be 5 --15 G. (3) The temporal evolution of the temperature and the density shows that the temperature peaks precede the density peaks in more than half of the events. These results suggest that chromospheric evaporations/condensations play an essential role in the thermal properties of some of the small flares in the quiet Sun, as does for large flares.

We often find spectral signatures of chromospheric cold plasma ejections accompanied by flares in a wide range of spatial scales in the solar and stellar atmospheres. However, the relationship between physical quantities (such as mass, kinetic energy, and velocity) of cold ejecta and flare energy has not been investigated in a unified manner for the entire range of flare energies to date. This study analyzed the spectra of cold plasma ejections associated with small-scale flares and solar flares (energy $10^{25}-10^{29}\,\mathrm{erg}$) to supply smaller energy samples. We performed H$\alpha$ imaging spectroscopy observation by the Solar Dynamics Doppler Imager on the Solar Magnetic Activity Research Telescope (SMART/SDDI). We determined the physical quantities of the ejecta by cloud model fitting to the H$\alpha$ spectrum. We determined flare energy by differential emission measure analysis using Atmospheric Imaging Assembly onboard Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO/AIA) for small-scale flares and by estimating the bolometric energy for large-scale flares. As a result, we found that the ejection mass $M$ and the total flare energy $E_{\mathrm{tot } }$ follow a relation of $M\propto E_{\mathrm{tot } }^{2/3}$. We show that the scaling law derived from a simple physical model explains the solar and stellar observations with a coronal magnetic field strength as a free parameter. We also found that the kinetic energy and velocity of the ejecta correlate with the flare energy. These results suggest a common mechanism driven by magnetic fields to cause cold plasma ejections with flares on the Sun and stars.

The solar active region NOAA 12887 produced a strong X1.0 flare on 2021 October 28, which exhibits X-shaped flare ribbons and a circle-shaped erupting filament. To understand the eruption process with these characteristics, we conducted a data-constrained magnetohydrodynamics simulation using a nonlinear force-free field of the active region about an hour before the flare as the initial condition. Our simulation reproduces the filament eruption observed in the Ha images of GONG and the 304 angstrom images of SDO/AIA and suggests that two mechanisms can possibly contribute to the magnetic eruption. One is the torus instability of the pre-existing magnetic flux rope (MFR), and the other is upward pushing by magnetic loops newly formed below the MFR via continuous magnetic reconnection between two sheared magnetic arcades. The presence of this reconnection is evidenced by the SDO/AIA observations of the 1600 angstrom brightening in the footpoints of the sheared arcades at the flare onset. To clarify which process is more essential for the eruption, we performed an experimental simulation in which the reconnection between the sheared field lines is suppressed. In this case too, the MFR could erupt, but at a much reduced rising speed. We interpret this result as indicating that the eruption is not only driven by the torus instability, but additionally accelerated by newly formed and rising magnetic loops under continuous reconnection.

The Tandem Etalon Magnetograph (TEM) is one of the instruments of the Solar Magnetic Activity Research Telescope of Hida Observatory. The TEM is a partial disk (320" x240") filter magnetograph which scans the wavelength around a Fe I line at 6303 angstrom and achieves polarimetric sensitivity of < 5x10^-4 for each wavelength. To obtain the polarimeter response matrix of the instrument, we have carried out end-to-end polarization calibrations of the instrument. We have also measured the polarization characteristics of the polarization beam splitter (PBS), which is a crucial component of the instrument. As a result of end-to-end calibration, we found significant spatial variation in the response matrix across the field of view. From a laboratory test, we found that 1% of the magnitude of a circular diattenuation of the PBS was due to the retardation caused by the stress in the cube and the linear diattenuation of the film. Although the spatial variation across the field of view is more than ten times larger, to achieve the polarimetric sensitivity of < 5x10^-4, this can be well explained by the polarization characteristic of the PBS and corrected by using the response matrix obtained in the end-to-end calibration. In addition, we also obtained the daily variation of the polarization property of the TEM. We found that the crosstalk from Stokes Q to V changes an amount comparable to the tolerance through a day. In the present configuration, we require a pixel-by-pixel calibration every 100 minutes to meet the accuracy requirement.

Active region (AR) 12673 produced many M-class and several X-class flares, one of which being an X9.3 flare, which is recorded as the largest solar flare in solar cycle 24. We studied the evolution of the three-dimensional flare-productive magnetic field within AR 12673, using a time series of nonlinear force-free field extrapolations of every 12 hours from September 4th 00:00 UT to 6th 00:00 UT. Our analysis found that three magnetic flux ropes (MFRs) are formed by September 4th, one of which produced the X9.3 flare on September 6th. One MFR has positive magnetic twist which is a different sign from other two MFRs. Since the temporal evolution of the magnetic flux of the MFR accumulating the positive twist is consistent with the profile of the GOES X-ray flux well observed from September 4th to 6th, we suggest that the formation of the MFR having the positive twist is closely related to the occurrence of the M-class flares including an M5.5 flare. We further found a magnetic null in the magnetic field surrounding the MFRs, in particular, above the MFR having positive twist before the M5.5 flare which is the largest M-flare observed during this period. By comparing with the AIA 1600 angstrom images, we found that the footpoints of the overlying field lines are anchored to the area where the brightening was initially observed. Therefore, we suggest that reconnection induced by the torus instability of the positively twisted MFR at the null possibly drived the M5.5 flare.