27 February 2023 to 2 March 2023
Europe/Oslo timezone

The gaps in our understanding of flare energy release: prospects with MUSE and other observatories

2 Mar 2023, 13:30
21m
Invited Talk Flares and Eruptions Flares and Eruptions

Speaker

Lyndsay Fletcher (School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow and Rosseland Centre for Solar Physics, University of Oslo)

Description

The overall paradigm of flare energy release is well-known. An energy-bearing coronal magnetic field relaxes via magnetic reconnection to a lower energy state, and the energy released is converted and dissipated in the radiation flash that is a solar flare. But what does that energy conversion and energy dissipation involve? There are strong and long-standing pointers to an important role for heating by non-thermal particles, but also observational hints that waves and turbulence have important roles. Furthermore, how is the energy release into the closed field of the lower corona - resulting in the flare - connected to the energy release into the wider corona that can result in a CME? Diagnosing waves and turbulence requires spectroscopic information, flares require high cadence particularly in their earliest phases, and probing the link to the early evolution of CMEs requires observation over a large field of view. MUSE can provide all of these in the EUV and, particularly when employed together with other facilities such as Solar-C and new ground-based observatories, is certain to fill many of the gaps in our understanding.

Primary author

Lyndsay Fletcher (School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow and Rosseland Centre for Solar Physics, University of Oslo)

Presentation materials