NJIT Physics
Department Seminar
February 6th, Monday, 2017
An X-ray View of Solar Flares
U.
of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland
Switzerland
(Solar Physics, Host: Bin Chen)
Time: 11:45am-12:45pm with 11:30am tea time
Room: ECE 202
Solar flares are the most energetic phenomena in our
solar system. In seconds to minutes they effectively release magnetic energy,
heat plasma, and accelerate particles to relativistic speeds. Yet many aspects
of where and how energy is released, how particles are accelerated and how they
are transported, both close to the Sun and into interplanetary space, are still
not understood. Signatures of accelerated electrons and hot plasma are readily
observed in X-rays. In the past decade we have made a lot of progress in
understanding solar flares with X-ray data from the RHESSI satellite. I will
describe how RHESSI observes solar flares and give some highlights of what we
have learnt about plasma heating, electron acceleration, and electron transport
during flares. I further also provide an outlook to future observations of
solar activity with ESA's Solar Orbiter which will be launched in 2018.