Energy Storage and Release in Solar Flares
Terry G. Forbes
UNH
- Most present-day models of flares are based on the principle that the energy that drives them comes from the magnetic energy associated with stressed magnetic fields in the solar corona. A primary question regarding models of this type is the nature of the mechanism that triggers the energy release. One attractive possibility is that onset is triggered by a combination of ideal (e.g. loss of equilibrium) and non-ideal (e.g. magnetic reconnection) processes acting together. The first process can explain the rapid onset of the eruption, but the second is needed to explain the large scale of the energy release. Although quite a few models are currently being developed, many important questions about flares remain unanswered. For example, how are the currents in the corona created, and what form do they take in a three-dimensional configuration? Can models of the above type account for the acceleration of energetic protons and electrons? What kind of interaction occurs between the erupted field and the surrounding non-erupted field and can such interactions be detected?
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