Observations and Analysis of White-light Flares With High Resolution

首席调查员(PI)将通过观测和数值模拟沉淀的高能粒子及其在低太阳大气中伴随的加热来调查白光太阳耀斑发射的来源。这项研究将利用新墨西哥州邓恩太阳望远镜和加那利群岛德国真空塔望远镜现有的配备自适应光学设备的设施，以及预计将在这一项目过程中提供的新的配备自适应光学设备的设施，即加利福尼亚州大熊太阳天文台的新太阳望远镜和加那利群岛的格雷戈尔望远镜。这些仪器在近红外和可见光波段对太阳进行的高频率和高分辨率观测将辅之以选定谱线的成像光谱学和航天器对太阳硬X射线辐射的测量，这是对高能粒子加速的直接诊断。PI将把这些观测结果与现有的模型进行比较，以更好地了解较低太阳大气的加热过程，并优化这些模型中的参数。这一努力将为PI作为一名年轻的博士后研究员提供专业发展，并将通过促进德国和美国中国太阳物理研究所之间的国际合作来加强全球研究基础设施。白光耀斑属于通常非常强烈的太阳耀斑，可能会对地球造成不利的空间天气影响。因此，更好地了解它们的行为将有助于构建改进的空间天气模型和业务预报，造福社会。这项研究的结果也将适用于恒星天体物理和等离子体物理的研究。

The Principal Investigator (PI) will investigate the origin of white-light solar flare emission by using observations and numerical simulations of precipitating high energy particles and of their concomitant heating of the lower solar atmosphere. This study will take advantage of existing adaptive-optics-equipped facilities at the Dunn Solar Telescope in New Mexico and the German Vacuum Tower Telescope in the Canary Islands, as well as new adaptive-optics-equipped facilities that are expected to become available during the course of this project, namely, the New Solar Telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory in California and the Gregor Telescope in the Canary islands. The high cadence and high resolution observations of the Sun made by these instruments in near-infrared and visible light wavelengths will be supplemented by imaging spectroscopy of selected spectral lines and by spacecraft measurements of the Sun's hard X-ray emissions, which is a direct diagnostic of energetic particle acceleration. The PI will compare these observations with existing models to better understand the heating process of the lower solar atmosphere and to optimize the parameterizations within these models. This effort will provide for the professional development of the PI as a young postdoctoral investigator and it will enhance global research infrastructure by promoting international collaboration among solar physics institutes in China, Germany, and the USA. White-light flares fall within the class of solar flares that are usually very strong and can cause adverse space weather effects at Earth. Therefore, a better understanding of their behavior will help to construct improved space weather models and operational forecasts for the benefit of society. The results of this study will also be applicable to research in stellar astrophysics and plasma physics.