Flare differentially rotates sunspot on Sun’s surface

Chang Liu (), Yan Xu, Wenda Cao, Na Deng, Jeongwoo Lee, Hugh S. Hudson, Dale E. Gary, Jiasheng Wang, Ju Jing and Haimin Wang ()
Additional contact information
Chang Liu: Space Weather Research Laboratory, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights
Yan Xu: Space Weather Research Laboratory, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights
Wenda Cao: Big Bear Solar Observatory, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Na Deng: Space Weather Research Laboratory, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights
Jeongwoo Lee: Space Weather Research Laboratory, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights
Hugh S. Hudson: School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow
Dale E. Gary: Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights
Jiasheng Wang: Space Weather Research Laboratory, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights
Ju Jing: Space Weather Research Laboratory, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights
Haimin Wang: Space Weather Research Laboratory, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Sunspots are concentrations of magnetic field visible on the solar surface (photosphere). It was considered implausible that solar flares, as resulted from magnetic reconnection in the tenuous corona, would cause a direct perturbation of the dense photosphere involving bulk motion. Here we report the sudden flare-induced rotation of a sunspot using the unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution of the 1.6 m New Solar Telescope, supplemented by magnetic data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory. It is clearly observed that the rotation is non-uniform over the sunspot: as the flare ribbon sweeps across, its different portions accelerate (up to ∼50° h−1) at different times corresponding to peaks of flare hard X-ray emission. The rotation may be driven by the surface Lorentz-force change due to the back reaction of coronal magnetic restructuring and is accompanied by a downward Poynting flux. These results have direct consequences for our understanding of energy and momentum transportation in the flare-related phenomena.

Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13104 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms13104

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13104

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().