EGU23-13609
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-13609
EGU General Assembly 2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Heavy-ion-rich X-ray solar flares in December 2022 measured on Solar Orbiter

Oleksiy Dudnik1, Glenn Mason2, George Ho2, Robert Allen2, Robert Wimmer-Schweingruber3, Javier Rodríguez-Pacheco4, Francisco Espinosa Lara4, Raul Gómez Herrero4, Tomasz Mrozek1, and Marian Karlicky5
Oleksiy Dudnik et al.
  • 1Space Research Centre, Polish Academy of Sciences , Solar Physics Division, Poland (od@cbk.pan.wroc.pl)
  • 2The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, USA (Glenn.Mason@jhuapl.edu)
  • 3Institute of Exp. & Appl. Physics, Christian-Albrechts-University, Kiel, Germany (wimmer@physik.uni-kiel.de)
  • 4Universidad de Alcalá, Space Research Group, Alcalá de Henares, Spain (fsrodriguez@uah.es)
  • 5Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, 251 65 Ondřejov, Czech Republic (marian.karlicky@asu.cas.cz)

   Energy spectra of X-ray solar flares observed by the Spectrometer-Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX) onboard the Solar Orbiter consist of both thermal and non-thermal parts. The thermal part is present in all solar events. When the non-thermal part of the energy spectrum begins to dominate, we can expect detection in interplanetary space of high-energy electron beams that have escaped the coronal loops. When hard X-ray flares are detected solar type III radio bursts are registered frequently with their numerous modifications like drift pairs, U-type, and structured bursts. The e-CALLISTO simple worldwide radio antenna stations allow us to identify the existence of non-thermal components in the energy spectra of strong X-ray flares. At the same time, some X-ray flares are accompanied by ejections of energetic ions including heavy ions. The specific features in X-ray bursts responsible for events with simultaneous light and heavy particle stream generation are still unclear compared with those with electron emission only.

    We present preliminary results of observations gathered in December 2022 and cross-analysis of data on energetic light and heavy particle fluxes and X-ray flare parameters. The end of 2022 was distinguished by moderate to high solar activity, the presence of three periods with enhanced proton and heavy-ion fluxes at the beginning of the month, in the middle, and on 25-26 December. We demonstrate also the presence of narrow directed electron beams detected by the Electron Proton Telescope (EPT) of EPD for selected events mentioned above, and heavy ions detected by the Suprathermal Ion Spectrograph (SIS) of EPD.

How to cite: Dudnik, O., Mason, G., Ho, G., Allen, R., Wimmer-Schweingruber, R., Rodríguez-Pacheco, J., Espinosa Lara, F., Gómez Herrero, R., Mrozek, T., and Karlicky, M.: Heavy-ion-rich X-ray solar flares in December 2022 measured on Solar Orbiter, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 24–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-13609, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-13609, 2023.