Can You ID This Space Photo? N.J. Researchers Launch NASA-Funded Study

NEWARK, NJ — They’re known as “solar flares,” colossal releases of magnetic energy in the sun’s corona. And thanks to a trove of recent photos captured at the “Big Bear Solar Observatory,” researchers at the Newark-based New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) think that they understand more about these captivating displays of power.

The implications of their research are also significant for the denizens of Earth: NJIT researchers say that solar flares dispatch energized particles that are capable of penetrating the planet’s atmosphere within an hour and disrupting orbiting satellites and electronic communications on the ground.

Last week, scientists from NJIT’s Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research released a photo of a solar flare, captured by the university’s 1.6-meter New Solar Telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) in the San Bernardino Mountains in southern California. [See below photo]

NJIT researchers said that that photos such as this reveal the emergence of small-scale magnetic fields in the lower reaches of the corona, which researchers claim may be linked to the onset of a main flare.

“These smaller magnetic fields appear as precursors to the flare by reconnecting with each other – breaking apart and forming new connections – in an already stressed magnetic environment. This sets the stage for a larger energy release,” said Haimin Wang, a professor of physics at NJIT and the leading author of a paper published this week in the magazine Nature Astronomy.

The study, funded by the National Science Foundation and NASA, was conducted in collaboration with colleagues in Japan and China, NJIT administrators stated.

“Through our measurements, we are able to see the emergence of fine magnetic channel structures prior to the flare, which contain mixed positive and negative magnetic polarities,” Wang explained. “We then see a strong twist in the magnetic lines that creates instability in the system and may trigger the eruption.”

While solar flares are generally believed to be powered by what is known as free energy – energy stored in the corona that is released by twisting magnetic fields – the study’s authors suggested that the build-up of coronal energy in the upper atmosphere alone may not be sufficient to trigger a flare.

In their research of a prolonged flare on June 22, 2015, scientists observed the emergence in the lower atmosphere of what they call precursors, or “pre-flare brightenings,” in various wavelengths.

“There are well-documented periods in which flares occur more frequently than the norm, but it has been difficult thus far to determine exactly when and where a particular flare might be initiated,” the study’s authors stated.

However, the BBSO’s recent study of a flare’s magnetic evolution, enhanced by simultaneous microwave observations from EOVSA, has been able to pin down the time and location of the magnetic reconnection prior to the flare, researchers said.

“Our study may help us predict flares with more precision,” Wang said.

A co-author of the article, Kanya Kusano of Nagoya University, compared BBSO’s observations with his numerical simulation of the triggering process of solar flares.

“I found that the observational result is very well consistent with the simulation,” he noted. “This clearly indicates that these mixed-polarity magnetic channel structures are typical of the stressed magnetic field that triggers solar flares.”

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Photo: NJIT