A Bright Impulsive Solar Burst Detected at 30 Thz

Ground- and space-based observations of solar flares from radio wavelengths to gamma-rays have produced considerable insights but raised several unsolved controversies. The last unexplored wavelength frontier for solar flares is in the range of submillimeter and infrared wavelengths. Here we report...

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Authors: Kaufmann, P.; White, S. M.; Freeland, S. L.; Marcon, R.; Fernandes, L. O. T; Kudaka, A. S.; de Souza, R. V.; Aballay, Jose Luis; Fernandez, German Enzo Leonel; Godoy, Rodolfo Alfredo; Marun, Adolfo Hector; Valio, A.; Raulin, J. P.; Gimenez de Castro, Carlos Guillermo
Format: Article
Status:Published version
Publication date:2013
Country:Argentina
Institution:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repository:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/1634
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/1634
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:SUN: ACTIVITY
SUN: FLARES
SUN: INFRARED
SUN: RADIO RADIATION
SUN: UV RADIATION
SUN: X-RAYS, GAMMA RAYS
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.3
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1
Summary:Ground- and space-based observations of solar flares from radio wavelengths to gamma-rays have produced considerable insights but raised several unsolved controversies. The last unexplored wavelength frontier for solar flares is in the range of submillimeter and infrared wavelengths. Here we report the detection of an intense impulsive burst at 30 THz using a new imaging system. The 30 THz emission exhibited remarkable time coincidence with peaks observed at microwave, mm/submm, visible, EUV, and hard X-ray wavelengths. The emission location coincides with a very weak white-light feature, and is consistent with heating below the temperature minimum in the atmosphere. However, there are problems in attributing the heating to accelerated electrons. The peak 30 THz flux is several times larger than the usual microwave peak near 9 GHz, attributed to non-thermal electrons in the corona. The 30 THz emission could be consistent with an optically thick spectrum increasing from low to high frequencies. It might be part of the same spectral component found at sub-THz frequencies whose nature remains mysterious. Further observations at these wavelengths will provide a new window for flare studies.

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