2026/03/24 by De-Chao Song, Ying Li, Qiao Li +1 · 1 voice
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph.SR
The hydrogen \lya line and the white-light (WL) continuum are two key diagnostics of energy transport in the lower atmosphere during solar flares, yet their relationship remains poorly understood. Here we present a statistical analysis of 69 white-light flares (WLFs) to investigate the relationships among the \lya, soft X-ray (SXR), and WL continuum emissions using the data from GOES and the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on the Solar Dynamics Observatory. We find that the \lya contrast in these WLFs ranges 0.8--28.5% with a mean value of 7.0%. Positive power-law relationships exist among peak enhancements in SXR, \lya, and WL. For most events, the \lya peak is nearly co-temporal with the peak of SXR time derivative, whereas the WL peak is either co-temporal with or lags those of \lya and SXR derivative. The \lya and WL rise times are similar (∼3--4 min) and correlated. We also find that the radiated energy in \lya and HMI narrow-band WL has a positive power-law relationship with duration. In particular, the power-law index for the narrow-band WL is very close to 1/3 as predicted by magnetic reconnection theory. On average, the radiated energies in GOES \lya and SXR bands are approximately three orders of magnitude greater than the energy emitted in the continuum near 6173 Å with a bandwidth of 1 Å. Our findings provide new constraints on lower-atmosphere energy transport in solar flares and can serve as valuable references for modelling and interpreting the flares on solar-type stars.