Flare Mechanism


Image from Lang, K., Sun, Earth
and Sky, Springer-Verlag, Germany, p 145,
1995
Caption:
  • The image to the left is a helmet streamer observed by the Yokhoh spacecraft.
  • The top image is a schematic of the proposed mechanisms operating during a flare.
  • Within the helmet structure, highly stretched field lines provide favorable conditions for magnetic reconnection to occur. Oppositely- directed magnetic field lines can come together and reconnect with the release of energy.
  • The magnetic reconnection process can account for many signatures of flares including: high energy particle acceleration, ejections of matter, and the formation of two bright ribbons at the foot points of the arch structures in the chromosphere.

 
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