Magnetic Imprints of Eruptive and Noneruptive Solar Flares as Observed by Solar Dynamics Observatory

Abstract

The abrupt and permanent changes of the photospheric magnetic field in the localized regions of active regions during solar flares, called magnetic imprints (MIs), have been observed for nearly the past three decades. The well-known coronal implosion model is assumed to explain such flare-associated changes but the complete physical understanding is still missing and debatable. In this study, we made a systematic analysis of flare-related changes of the photospheric magnetic field during 21 flares (14 eruptive and seven noneruptive) using the 135 s cadence vector magnetogram data obtained from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager. The MI regions for eruptive flares are found to be strongly localized, whereas the majority of noneruptive events (>70%) have scattered imprint regions. To quantify the strength of the MIs, we derived the integrated change of horizontal field and the total change of Lorentz force over an area. These quantities correlate well with the flare strength, irrespective of whether flares are eruptive or not, or have a short or long duration. Further, the free energy (FE), determined from virial theorem estimates, exhibits a statistically significant downward trend that starts around the flare time and is observed in the majority of flares. The change of FE during flares does not depend on eruptivity but has a strong positive correlation (≈0.8) with the Lorentz force change, indicating that part of the FE released would penetrate the photosphere. While these results strongly favor the idea of significant feedback from the corona on the photospheric magnetic field, the characteristics of MIs are quite indistinguishable from flares being eruptive or not.