SOLAR FLARE RIBBONS REVEAL ENERGY BURSTS

A study in The Astrophysical Journal found that solar flares release energy in bursts, according to researchers led by Marcel Corchado Albelo of the US National Science Foundation. The team examined bright marks called flare ribbons on the Sun’s surface to investigate explosions that begin higher up. Its study, titled “Evolution of Spatial Complexity in Flare Ribbon Substructure and Its Relationship to Magnetic Reconnection Dynamics”, tracked how the ribbons’ fine detail changed over time. The researchers found that the glowing areas broke into fragments of different sizes.

Solar flares begin in the corona, the Sun’s outermost layer, which the Sun’s glare makes difficult to observe. Twisted magnetic fields trigger flares when they reconnect in a more stable arrangement and release energy. During that process, plasma and high energy particles follow magnetic field lines back towards the Sun. They light up the chromosphere where they strike it, creating the ribbons the team studied.

Astrophysicists classify flares by X-ray brightness as A, B, C, M or X, with each successive class representing a tenfold increase in energy output. Solar flares can disrupt radio communications and affect GPS accuracy, according to the accounts of their effects cited in the research coverage. They can also cause malfunctions in spacecraft electronics. Coronal mass ejections that accompany flares can produce auroras when they reach Earth and can disrupt power grids. The ribbon measurements give researchers a way to study changes in the magnetic activity behind flares.