Abstract
Large solar flares and eruptions may influence remote regions through perturbations in the outer-atmospheric magnetic field, leading to causally related events outside of the primary or triggering eruptions that are referred to as “sympathetic events”. We quantify the occurrence of sympathetic events using the full-disk observations by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory associated with flares of GOES class M5 or larger from 01 May 2010 through 31 December 2014. Using a superposed-epoch analysis, we find an increase in the rate of flares, filament eruptions, and substantial sprays and surges more than \(20^{\circ}\) away from the primary flares within the first 4 hours at a significance of 1.8 standard deviations. We also find that the rate of distant events drops by two standard deviations, or a factor of 1.2, when comparing intervals between 4 hours and 24 hours before and after the start times of the primary large flares. We discuss the evidence for the concluding hypothesis that the gradual evolution leading to the large flare and the impulsive release of the energy in that flare both contribute to the destabilization of magnetic configurations in distant active regions and quiet-Sun areas. These effects appear to leave distant regions, in an ensemble sense, in a more stable state, so that fewer energetic events happen for at least a day following large energetic events.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Brueckner, G.E., Howard, R.A., Koomen, M.J., Korendyke, C.M., Michels, D.J., Moses, J.D., Socker, D.G., Dere, K.P., Lamy, P.L., Llebaria, A., Bout, M.V., Schwenn, R., Simnett, G.M., Bedford, D.K., Eyles, C.J.: 1995, The Large Angle Spectroscopic Coronagraph (LASCO). Solar Phys. 162, 357. DOI . ADS
Downs, C., Roussev, I.I., van der Holst, B., Lugaz, N., Sokolov, I.V.: 2012, Understanding SDO/AIA observations of the 2010 June 13 EUV wave event: direct insight from a global thermodynamic MHD simulation. Astrophys. J. 750, 134.
Fu, Y., Welsch, B.T.: 2015, Triggering of remote flares by magnetic flux emergence. Solar Phys., submitted. arXiv .
Harrison, R.A., Davies, J.A., Möstl, C., Liu, Y., Temmer, M., Bisi, M.M., Eastwood, J.P., de Koning, C.A., Nitta, N., Rollett, T., Farrugia, C.J., Forsyth, R.J., Jackson, B.V., Jensen, E.A., Kilpua, E.K.J., Odstrcil, D., Webb, D.F.: 2012, An analysis of the origin and propagation of the multiple coronal mass ejections of 2010 August 1. Astrophys. J. 750, 45.
Jacobs, C., Poedts, S.: 2012, A numerical study of the response of the coronal magnetic field to flux emergence. Solar Phys. 280, 389. DOI . ADS .
Leibacher, J., Sakurai, T., Schrijver, C.J., van Driel-Gesztelyi, L.: 2010, Solar observation target identification convention for use in solar physics. Solar Phys. 263, 1. DOI . ADS .
Lemen, J.R., Title, A.M., Akin, D.J., Boerner, P.F., Chou, C., Drake, J.F., Duncan, D.W., Edwards, C.G., Friedlaender, F.M., Heyman, G.F., Hurlburt, N.E., Katz, N.L., Kushner, G.D., Levay, M., Lindgren, R.W., Mathur, D.P., McFeaters, E.L., Mitchell, S., Rehse, R.A., Schrijver, C.J., Springer, L.A., Stern, R.A., Tarbell, T.D., Wuelser, J.-P., Wolfson, C.J., Yanari, C., Bookbinder, J.A., Cheimets, P.N., Caldwell, D., Deluca, E.E., Gates, R., Golub, L., Park, S., Podgorski, W.A., Bush, R.I., Scherrer, P.H., Gummin, M.A., Smith, P., Auker, G., Jerram, P., Pool, P., Soufli, R., Windt, D.L., Beardsley, S., Clapp, M., Lang, J., Waltham, N.: 2012, The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Solar Phys. 275, 17. DOI . ADS .
Liu, W., Ofman, L.: 2014, Advances in observing various coronal EUV waves in the SDO era and their seismological applications (Invited review). Solar Phys. 289, 3233. DOI . ADS .
Liu, W., Ofman, L., Nitta, N.V., Aschwanden, M.J., Schrijver, C.J., Title, A.M., Tarbell, T.D.: 2012, Quasi-periodic fast-mode wave trains within a global EUV wave and sequential transverse oscillations detected by SDO/AIA. Astrophys. J. 753, 52.
Lynch, B.J., Edmondson, J.K.: 2013, Sympathetic magnetic breakout coronal mass ejections from pseudostreamers. Astrophys. J. 764, 87.
Nitta, N.V., Schrijver, C.J., Title, A.M., Liu, W.: 2013, Large-scale coronal propagating fronts in solar eruptions as observed by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory – an ensemble study. Astrophys. J. 776, 58. DOI . ADS .
Patsourakos, S., Vourlidas, A.: 2012, On the nature and genesis of EUV waves: a synthesis of observations from SOHO, STEREO, SDO, and Hinode (Invited review). Solar Phys. 281, 187. DOI .
Pesnell, W.D., Thompson, B.J., Chamberlin, P.C.: 2012, The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Solar Phys. 275, 3. DOI . ADS .
Schrijver, C.J.: 2007, A characteristic magnetic field pattern associated with all major solar flares and its use in flare forecasting. Astrophys. J. Lett. 655, 117.
Schrijver, C.J.: 2009, Driving major solar flares and eruptions: a review. Adv. Space Res. 43, 739.
Schrijver, C.J., Title, A.M.: 2011, Long-range magnetic couplings between solar flares and coronal mass ejections observed by SDO and STEREO. J. Geophys. Res. 116(A15), 4108.
Schrijver, C.J., Title, A.M., Yeates, A.R., DeRosa, M.L.: 2013, Pathways of large-scale magnetic couplings between solar coronal events. Astrophys. J. 773, 93.
Török, T., Panasenco, O., Titov, V.S., Mikić, Z., Reeves, K.K., Velli, M., Linker, J.A., De Toma, G.: 2011, A model for magnetically coupled sympathetic eruptions. Astrophys. J. Lett. 739, L63.
Welsch, B.T., Li, Y.: 2008, On the origin of strong-field polarity inversion lines. In: Howe, R., Komm, R.W., Balasubramaniam, K.S., Petrie, G.J.D. (eds.) Subsurface and Atmospheric Influences on Solar Activity CS-383, Astron. Soc. Pacific, San Francisco, 429.
Welsch, B.T., Li, Y., Schuck, P.W., Fisher, G.H.: 2009, What is the relationship between photospheric flow fields and solar flares? Astrophys. J. 705, 821.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by NASA’s SDO/AIA contract (NNG04EA00C) to LMSAL. AIA is an instrument onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory, a mission for NASA’s Living With a Star program. Data are provided courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA science team. We thank George Lee for his help in reviewing and annotating the AIA observations, and Nariaki Nitta for applying his perturbation-tracking algorithm to some of the more recent large-scale propagating fronts.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Schrijver, C.J., Higgins, P.A. A Statistical Study of Distant Consequences of Large Solar Energetic Events. Sol Phys 290, 2943–2950 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-015-0785-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-015-0785-x