Paper detail

Properties of a solar flare kernel observed by Hinode and SDO

Flare kernels are compact features located in the solar chromosphere that are the sites of rapid heating and plasma upflow during the rise phase of flares. An example is presented from a M1.1 class flare observed on 2011 February 16 07:44 UT for which the location of the upflow region seen by EIS can be precisely aligned to high spatial resolution images obtained by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) and Heliospheric Magnetic Imager (HMI) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). A string of bright flare kernels is found to be aligned with a ridge of strong magnetic field, and one kernel site is highlighted for which an upflow speed of 400 km/s is measured in lines formed at 10-30 MK. The line-of-sight magnetic field strength at this location is 1000 G. Emission over a continuous range of temperatures down to the chromosphere is found, and the kernels have a similar morphology at all temperatures and are spatially coincident with sizes at the resolution limit of the AIA instrument (< 400 km). For temperatures of 0.3-3.0 MK the EIS emission lines show multiple velocity components, with the dominant component becoming more blue-shifted with temperature from a redshift of 35 km/s at 0.3 MK to a blueshift of 60 km/s at 3.0 MK. Emission lines from 1.5-3.0 MK show a weak redshifted component at around 60-70 km/s implying multi-directional flows at the kernel site. Significant non-thermal broadening corresponding to velocities of 120 km/s is found at 10-30MK, and the electron density in the kernel, measured at 2 MK, is 3.4 x 10^10 cm-3. Finally, the Fe XXIV 192.03/255.11 ratio suggests that the EIS calibration has changed since launch, with the long wavelength channel less sensitive than the short wavelength channel by around a factor two.