The researchers pinpointed the possible origin of signals such as the mysterious heartbeats that the sun spews out during solar flares. Photo/Live Science
These findings could help learn more about how potentially damaging solar storms are unleashed. In a study published December 12, 2022, in the journal Nature Communications, Sijie Yu, solar radio astronomer at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), analyzed the heartbeat signal contained in a moderate class C flare that erupted on July 13, 2017.
After analyzing data collected by NJIT’s Expanded Owens Valley Solar Array (EOVSA) in California and NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, the team found a secondary heartbeat signal. The unexpected second signal, which appears to be related to the original signal, allowed the researchers to determine exactly what happened during solar flares to trigger the pair of signals.
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“These patterns are important for understanding how energy is released and dissipated in the Sun’s atmosphere during these extraordinarily powerful explosions. However, the origin of this repeating pattern has long been a mystery and a source of debate among solar physicists,” said Sijie Yu, quoted by SINDOnews from the Live Science page, Monday (27/2/2023).
The main heartbeat signal detected during the 2017 solar flares, pulses every 10 to 20 seconds. But the secondary signal, which is weaker than the main signal, ticks every 30 to 60 seconds, coming from across the current sheet, which has never been observed before.
Using data collected by EOVSA, the research team found that, despite their different periodicity, the two heartbeats most likely have the same trigger. The bubble-like structures known as “magnetic islands”, which form in current sheets.
Now, the researchers want to re-analyze data from other QPP signals to see if they are also formed from magnetic islands. Disturbances in this “current sheet” are believed to be the source of “knocks” in the QPP signal or quasi-periodic pulses.
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QPPs are solar radio bursts as well as some stellar radio bursts from distant stars, sometimes containing repeating patterns. Solar radio bursts are streams of electromagnetic radiation launched into space along with jets of superhot plasma, known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), during solar flares.
Large, fast CMEs can travel at speeds of up to 4.5 million miles per hour. Material ejected from the sun in a CME can consist of billions of tons of particles from the sun’s atmosphere as well as carry an embedded magnetic field.
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