Shearing motions and sunspot rotations found in NOAA AR 12673 are believed to lead the free energy buildup and flux rope formation, which are responsible for the two successive X-class flares.
A sample of 32 flare events are analyzed to evaluate how these events agree with a flare-triggering model, which examines shear angles of large-scale magnetic field and small-scale dipole field during the flares’ precursor brightening.
The majority of flare forecasting methods rely on observations of magnetic field on the Sun’s surface, but which observable, Br or Blos, is a better predictor? Through comparing a few magnetic properties derived from both observables, this nugget gives some suggestion.
AR12192, the largest active region in Solar Cycle 24, produced 6 X-class flares, but none of them were associated with a CME. However, a much weaker flare, of M4.0-class, was associated with a CME. Magnetic field and morphological changes are analyzed during these flares to understand why this is the case.
44 strong flares are analyzed, and a few factors are identified to determine whether a flare will be eruptive or confined.
The early phase of a flux emergence was observed by IRIS, and spectra of the accompanying UV bursts are analyzed. Many bursts appear to be associated with the magnetic flux cancellation, and almost all of them are located in regions with large squashing factors.
Vector magnetic fields, obtained separately from the HMI and from the Stokes parameters of Hinode, are compared for a sunspot umbra, penumbra, and plages in a selected active region.
Magnetic field changes associated with solar flares, observed by the SDO/HMI, are surveyed, and permanent changes of magnetic field are found in the majority of flare events. Properties of the magnetic field changes are further investigated.
The Sun’s surface poloidal and toroidal magnetic field were constructed for the last 4 solar cycles using observations from multiple instruments, and were then reproduced using the updated Babcock-Leighton model.
Super-synoptic map is constructed using SDO/HMI’s synoptic magnetic maps of each Carrington rotation, covering the period of May 2010 to December 2017. Polarity reversals can be clearly seen in the map.