Investigation of two C-class solar flares utilizing high resolution Hα data

Authors: Mia Mancuso (NJIT), Ju Jing (NJIT), Haimin Wang (NJIT)

We present high-resolution observation of two C-class solar flares, C5.4 (SOL2022-11-14T17:24) and C5.1 (SOL2022-11-14T19:29), in NOAA Active region 13140, obtained by 1.6 m Goode Solar Telescope (GST) at Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO). The GST observation at  the Hα line was performed by the Visible Imaging Spectrometer (VIS)  which scans the target area at ± 0.8, ± 0.6, ± 0.4, ± 0.2, and 0.0 Å from the line center. The Hα images have an approximate spatial sampling of ~0.03″ per pixel and at a cadence of 33 s from 16:47UT to 22:18 UT. A process for aligning these images to correct for shifts and rotations has been developed. The high-resolution Hα observation reveals details of the flares and many striking features such as a partial eruption of a filament:  individual strands of thin flux tubes  are separated from the main filament and cause episodes of two ribbon brightening.  This finding  motivates further analysis of evolution of magnetic topology of the events. Our new finding may explain why photospheric magnetic fields do not have obvious change after a flare,   as  the magnetic reconnection may only involve a very small amount of flux in the active region.