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Updated: Feb 27, 2026

Applying X-ray Imaging Crystal Spectroscopy for Use as a High Temperature Plasma Diagnostic
Published on: August 25, 2016
Beam electrons as a source of Hα flare ribbons
Malcolm Druett1, Eamon Scullion1, Valentina Zharkova1
1Northumbria University, Department of Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK.
Abstract:
The observations of solar flare onsets show rapid increase of hard and soft X-rays, ultra-violet emission with large Doppler blue shifts associated with plasma upflows, and Hα hydrogen emission with red shifts up to 1-4 Å. Modern radiative hydrodynamic models account well for blue-shifted emission, but struggle to reproduce closely the red-shifted Hα lines. Here we present a joint hydrodynamic and radiative model showing that during the first seconds of beam injection the effects caused by beam electrons can reproduce Hα line profiles with large red-shifts closely matching those observed in a C1.5 flare by the Swedish Solar Telescope. The model also accounts closely for timing and magnitude of upward motion to the corona observed 29 s after the event onset in 171 Å by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly/Solar Dynamics Observatory.
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