Speaker
Description
First Name: Graham
Last Name: Kerr
Email Address: graham.kerr.2@glasgow.ac.uk
Affiliation: University of Glasgow
All Authors: Sam Krucker, Joel Allred, Jenny M Rodriguez-Gomez, Andrew Inglis, Daniel Ryan, Laura Hayes, Ryan Milligan, Adam Kowalski, Joesph Plowman, Peter Young, Therese Kucera, Jeffrey Brosius
Abstract: Solar flare ribbons and footpoints represent crucial diagnostic windows onto the various process involved in flare energetics, including reconnection, particle acceleration and plasma dynamics. High-resolution, high-cadence observations have revealed substantial fine-scale structure to those lower atmospheric sources, which undoubtedly impart information about energy release, particle acceleration and transport. Here we present flare-optimised EUI/HRI, STIX and SPICE observations from Solar Orbiter's spring 2024 Major Flare campaign. In particular, we focus on a small event in which SPICE's slit crossed two flare ribbons, providing spectral information from two footpoints. Analysis of the Lyβ and Lyγ lines found that each footpoint responded in a rather different manner. Careful comparisons to state-of-the-art flare radiation hydrodynamics simulations (driven by STIX and EUI derived inputs) revealed that this was due to different energy transport mechanisms dominating in each footpoint, despite being nearby each other. One footpoint was consistent with precipitation of accelerated particles, whereas the other was instead consistent with an enhanced heat flux from a directly heated flare corona. The implication being that electron beams do not dominate energetics in each location along flare ribbons. We conclude by looking ahead to future observations (e.g. MUSE) that could help us understand where, when, and why energy transport mechanisms vary along flare structures.