Observations of the coronal dynamics associated with solar radio spike burst emission

¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland, UK e-mail: jkhan@spd.aas.org
² Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam, An der Sternwarte 16, 14482 Potsdam, Germany

Received: 11 August 2005
Accepted: 2 June 2006

Abstract

We present the results of an analysis of multi-wavelength data for a solar radio spike burst event which was observed on 1997 November 14 by the Solar Radio Spectrometers of the Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam (AIP). Using radio imaging data from the Nançay Radioheliograph we are able to determine the location of the spike burst emission sites in relation to the associated flare and its coronal environment as seen in images from the Yohkoh Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT), Hard X-ray Telescope (HXT) and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT). For this event we find that the spike burst emission originated high in the corona, ~122 Mm above the soft X-ray and hard X-ray emitting regions of the associated (near-limb) flaring region. Using imaging data from SXT, HXT, and EIT we are also able to show, for the first time, the location of a solar radio spike burst in relation to the dynamics of coronal structures. We find that as an earlier flare-associated coronal mass ejection (CME) in the vicinity expanded outwards it appeared to compress the magnetic field structures at its flanks (associated with highly inclined coronal loops at the periphery of the active region). The radio spike bursts appeared at the time and in the vicinity of the compression of the coronal field. The compression presumably led to reconnection of the coronal magnetic field structures, particle acceleration and the radio spike burst emission signatures. For the specific event we analyse we find that the spike burst emission is associated with secondary flare energy release induced by an earlier flare-associated CME. These observations also provide evidence for a new category of sympathetic flaring where a large flare-associated coronal mass ejection compresses adjacent magnetic structures leading to nearby, but remote, small-scale flaring.