"Solar Flare Physics"
B.V. Somov (Solar Physics Department, Astronomical Institute, Moscow State University)
Abstract:
Solar flares strongly influence interplanetary and terrestrial space by virtue of hard electromagnetic radiation, high-energy charged particles, shock waves and fast flows of plasma with magnetic field. Modern space observations demonstrate that the large-scale dynamics of flares is determined by fast magnetic reconnection at separators in the solar corona. Such observations and the theory of reconnection in flares is briefly reviewed. The theory explains the main specific features of large-scale reconnection as the physical phenomenon responsible for accumulation of energy before a large flare and for a fast release of this energy during a flare, including acceleration of electrons and ions to high energies.