Observations and Analysis of White-light Flares With High Resolution

首席研究员（PI）将通过观测和高能粒子的沉降及其伴随的太阳低层大气加热的数值模拟来研究白光太阳耀斑发射的起源。本研究将利用新墨西哥州的邓恩太阳望远镜和加那利群岛的德国真空塔望远镜现有的自适应光学设备，以及预计在本项目过程中投入使用的新自适应光学设备，即加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节奏和高分辨率观测将由选定光谱线的成像光谱和航天器对太阳硬x射线发射的测量来补充，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模式进行比较，以更好地了解太阳低层大气的加热过程，并优化这些模式中的参数化。这项工作将提供PI作为年轻博士后研究员的专业发展，并将通过促进中国，德国和美国太阳物理研究所之间的国际合作，加强全球研究基础设施。白光耀斑属于太阳耀斑的一类，通常非常强烈，可以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，以造福社会。这项研究的结果也将适用于恒星天体物理学和等离子体物理学的研究。

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.