Birth and evolution of a dense coronal loop in a complex flare region

¹ Astrophysics Group, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QQ, UK e-mail: laura@astro.gla.ac.uk
² Institute for Geophysics, Astrophysics and Meteorology, University of Graz, Universitätsplatz 5, 8010 Graz, Austria
³ University of Maryland, Astronomy Department, College Park, MD 20742, USA

Received: 2 March 2006
Accepted: 10 October 2006

Abstract

Context. During the 14th/15th of April 2002, several flares occurred in NOAA active region complex 9893/9910. Two of these were previously interpreted as having anomalously high coronal column densities.

Aims.We develop a scenario using multiwavelength observations to explain the high coronal column density (≈10²⁰ cm^-2) present at the onset of the 14th April 2002 M3.7 hard X-ray event.

Methods.Prior to this event a series of flares occurred in close temporal and spatial proximity. We observe the sequence of flares in a multiwavelength regime from radio to hard X-rays. This allows us to study the particle acceleration and plasma evaporation in these events.

Results.The observations of these flares lead us to propose a sequence of reconnections between multiple systems of loops in a 3 dimensional field geometry. We suggest that the dense loops in the M3.7 event can be explained as being already filled with plasma from the earlier events; these loops then themselves become unstable or reconnect leading to particle acceleration into an overdense coronal environment. We explore the possibility that a high-beta disruption is behind the instability of these dense loops, leading to the 14th April 2002 M3.7 event and the observation of hard X-rays in the corona at energies up to ≈50 keV.