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5h ago

Inouye Solar Telescope Resolves Solar Flare Loop Strands Down to 21 Kilometers

An ApJL paper reports H-alpha images at ~24 km resolution that provide new constraints for flare modeling.

Image
A high-resolution image of the flare from the Inouye Solar Telescope, taken on August 8, 2024, at 20:12 UT. The image is about 4 Earth-diameters on each side. Labels of the different relevant regions of the image are added for clarity: flare ribbons (bright areas of energy release in the dense lower solar atmosphere) and an arcade of coronal loops (arcs of plasma outlining magnetic field lines that transport energy from the corona to the flare ribbons). Image credit: NSF / NSO / AURA.

Overview

  • Researchers used DKIST to image the decay phase of an X1.3-class solar flare on August 8, 2024, at 20:12 UT.
  • Measured loop strands averaged 48.2 km across, with some near 21 km, marking the smallest coronal loops ever imaged.
  • The Visible Broadband Imager at 656.28 nm resolves solar features to about 24 km, exceeding previous ground-based resolution by more than 2.5 times.
  • The authors propose the ultra-fine strands may be elemental flare structures, a possibility that will require follow-up observations and modeling.
  • This was DKIST’s first observation of an X-class flare, captured in an image roughly four Earth-diameters wide showing dark threadlike loops above bright ribbons.