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Thermal Evolution and Radiative Output of Solar Flares Observed by the EUV Variability Experiment (EVE)

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Abstract

This paper describes the methods used to obtain the thermal evolution and radiative output during solar flares as observed by the Extreme ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE) onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). How EVE measurements, due to the temporal cadence, spectral resolution and spectral range, can be used to determine how the thermal plasma radiates at various temperatures throughout the impulsive and gradual phase of flares is presented and discussed in detail. EVE can very accurately determine the radiative output of flares due to pre- and in-flight calibrations. Events are presented that show that the total radiated output of flares depends more on the flare duration than the typical GOES X-ray peak magnitude classification. With SDO observing every flare throughout its entire duration and over a large temperature range, new insights into flare heating and cooling as well as the radiative energy release in EUV wavelengths support existing research into understanding the evolution of solar flares.

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Notes

  1. It has been confirmed that the 5 November 2010 flare also had no detectable hard X-ray emission from spectroscopic analysis of RHESSI observations, but an in depth discussion between EVE and RHESSI data for the events presented here is being prepared in a separate paper.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported through Solar Dynamics Observatory project funding at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. PCC would like to thank Brian Dennis (NASA/GSFC) for his careful reading of this paper and thoughtful comments that greatly improved this work, and Dominic Zarro for developing the get_eve_data.pro routine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Solar Physics Laboratory, Heliophysics Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA

    P. C. Chamberlin & R. O. Milligan

  2. Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80303, USA

    T. N. Woods

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  1. P. C. Chamberlin
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Correspondence to P. C. Chamberlin.

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Chamberlin, P.C., Milligan, R.O. & Woods, T.N. Thermal Evolution and Radiative Output of Solar Flares Observed by the EUV Variability Experiment (EVE). Sol Phys 279, 23–42 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-012-9975-y

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