2017/03/20 by Jiong Qiu, Dana W. Longcope, D. W. Longcope +4 · 1 citation
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Composite material #Corona (planetary geology) #Coronal mass ejection #Elongation #Field line #Flare #Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism Studies #Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics #Magnetic field #Magnetic reconnection #Materials science #Nanoflares #Physics #Ribbon #Shear (geology) #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #Solar flare #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aa6341
published as The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 838, Issue 1, article id. 17, 17 pp. (2017)
openalex publication_date 2017/03/20 · arxiv created 2017/07/08 · arxiv updated 2017/07/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract We present an analysis of the apparent elongation motion of flare ribbons along the polarity inversion line (PIL), as well as the shear of flare loops in several two-ribbon flares. Flare ribbons and loops spread along the PIL at a speed ranging from a few to a hundred km s −1 . The shear measured from conjugate footpoints is consistent with the measurement from flare loops, and both show the decrease of shear toward a potential field as a flare evolves and ribbons and loops spread along the PIL. Flares exhibiting fast bidirectional elongation appear to have a strong shear, which may indicate a large magnetic guide field relative to the reconnection field in the coronal current sheet. We discuss how the analysis of ribbon motion could help infer properties in the corona where reconnection takes place.