Estimating the Temperature of Solar Flares from X-Ray Emission Data
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Authors
Johnson, Max
Date of Issue
2023-04-28
Type
Presentation
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Abstract
Solar flares are large eruptions of electromagnetic radiation caused primarily by instabilities in the sun’s magnetic field. They are an area of significant interest in solar physics as they provide information about the composition and magnetic nature of the sun. The influx of radiation from particularly powerful flares can also cause radio blackouts on Earth, further increasing their relevance.
Solar flares emit a wide range of electromagnetic wavelengths, including significant x-ray radiation. The NASA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) network continuously collects measurements of the sun’s x-ray emissions, including during solar flares, via a pair of instruments. These two instruments are known as the “short” and “long” channels of the GOES X-Ray Sensors (XRS). The internal specifications of these instruments along with a solar flare model can be used to calculate a numerical value for the response of each instrument as a function of temperature of the solar flare. The short and long channels of GOES XRS demonstrate consistently different but comparable responses for a given range of temperatures. By comparing the ratio of the responses to each other, it can be shown that given ratios of responses correspond to temperatures of solar flares.