Flare Ribbon Expansion and Energy Release Rate

Abstract

We report a detailed examination about the relationship between the evolution of the H$\alpha$ flare ribbons and the released magnetic energy during an X2.3 solar flare which occurred on 2001 April 10. We successfully evaluated the released energy quantitatively, based on the magnetic reconnection model. We measured the photospheric magnetic field strengths and the separation speeds of the fronts of the H$\alpha$ flare ribbon, and estimated the released magnetic energy at the flare by using those values. Then, we compared the estimated energy release rates with the nonthermal behaviors observed in hard X-rays and microwaves. We also estimated the magnetic energy released during the flare. The estimated energy release rates in the H$\alpha$ kernels associated with the hard X-ray sources are locally large enough to explain the difference between the spatial distribution of the H$\alpha$ kernels and the hard X-ray sources. Furthermore, we reconstructed the peaks in the nonthermal emission by using the estimated energy release rates.To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html