The last decade several cellular automata (CA) models have been developed in order to explain the solar flare statistics derived from observations. These models simulate the storage/release process using simple evolution rules, neglecting the details of the processes. The main advantage of this approach is the treatment of a large number of elementary energy release events (avalanches) and the ...

The individual isotopes of neon in energetic solar flare particles have been clearly resolved with arms mass resolution of 0.20 amu. We find 20Ne/22Ne = 7.6 ( +2.0, -1.8) and 21Ne/22Ne < 0.11 in the 11-26 MeV per nucleon interval. This isotopic composition is essentially the same as that of meteoritic planetary neon-A and is significantly different from that of the solar wind. Subject headings:...

A “white-light prominence” is a flare visible in the continuum above the solar limb. Few examples of this phenomenon have been reported, but the tremendous event of 2003 November 4 was detected by several instruments. This was a partially occulted flare. We report here a detailed study of a much weaker event, seen in this case from a flare whose chromospheric component was on the disk. We find....

In the absence of atomic structures of high-density lipoproteins in their lipid-bound states, many molecular models have been produced based on experimental data. Using molecular dynamics, we show that a recently proposed "solar-flares" model of discoidal high-density lipoprotein is implausible. Our simulations show a collapse of the protruding solar-flare loops and a notable protein rearrangem...

We analyze the line data from solar flares to present evidence for the emission spectrum of the recently discussed electron-proton pairs at high temperatures. We also point out that since the pairing phenomenon provides an additional source for these lines—the conventional source being the highly ionized high-Z atoms already existing in the solar atmosphere, we have a plausible explanation of t...

• short-term inclement weather forecasting (for hurricanes, etc.), • contaminant plume forecasting in both urban environments (for coordinating emergency response) and battlefield environments (for coordinating troop movements), • long-term ocean current forecasting (for El Niño, climate change, etc.), and • MHD/plasma forecasting (for sunspot cycles, over terms of years, in order to plan space...

The concept of quasiseparatrix layers (QSLs) has emerged as a powerful tool to study the connectivity of magnetic field lines undergoing magnetic reconnection in solar flares. Although they have been used principally by the solar physics community until now, QSLs can be employed to shed light on all processes in which reconnection occurs. We present the first application of this theory to an ex...

By considering similar observed properties of gamma ray bursts (GRB) and solar flares with the prevailing physical conditions in the cosmic environment, the following study suggests that most likely and promising energy source for the central engine which triggers GRB may be due to primordial flares, solar flare like phenomena, at the sites of inter galactic or inter galactic clusters in the ea...

This paper is a pedagogical introduction to avalanche models of solar flares, including a comprehensive review of recent modeling efforts and directions. This class of flare model is built on a recent paradigm in statistical physics, known as self-organized criticality. The basic idea is that flares are the result of an ‘avalanche’ of small-scale magnetic reconnection events cascading through a...

The question of whether flares occur as a Poisson process has important consequences for flare physics. Recently Lepreti et al. presented evidence for local departure from Poisson statistics in the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) X-ray flare catalog. Here it is argued that this effect arises from a selection effect inherent in the soft X-ray observations; namely that th...