{"id":33339,"date":"2025-04-19T16:06:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T16:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/33339\/"},"modified":"2025-04-19T16:06:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T16:06:08","slug":"scientists-discover-new-trigger-mechanism-for-solar-microflares","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/33339\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists discover new trigger mechanism for solar microflares"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/scientists-discover-ne-7.jpg\" alt=\"Scientists discover new trigger mechanism for solar microflares\" title=\"a) Snapshots of 11 tiny ejections (E1-E11, as marked by red arrows) captured in EUI\/HRIEUV 174 \u00c5 images. Black dashed lines indicate the crossing flaring loops. b) Time-distance plots taken along the orange dashed lines plotted on panel (a). Credit: Wang Qingmei\" width=\"800\" height=\"530\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                a) Snapshots of 11 tiny ejections (E1-E11, as marked by red arrows) captured in EUI\/HRIEUV 174 \u00c5 images. Black dashed lines indicate the crossing flaring loops. b) Time-distance plots taken along the orange dashed lines plotted on panel (a). Credit: Wang Qingmei<\/p>\n<p>A study published in <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3847\/2041-8213\/adbf96\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Astrophysical Journal Letters<\/a> reveals new insights into the triggering mechanisms of solar microflares and the self-similarity of solar flares. The research was led by Prof. Bi Yi from the Yunnan Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).<\/p>\n<p>Traditional theories of solar flares suggest that they are driven by outbursts of magnetic rope structures. This classical model explains many features of the sun&#8217;s large-scale energy releases. However, this study focuses specifically on microflares and suggests that their triggering mechanisms differ from those of larger flares.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers utilized data from the Solar Orbiter&#8217;s Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) and conducted multi-platform joint observations using the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA). They made the first observations of tiny ejections occurring alongside microflares.<\/p>\n<p>These ejections originated from the centers of three homologous microflares within a dipole magnetic field. Initially, they appeared as point-like structures with a diameter of just 103 km, rapidly evolving into a ring-like shape that propagated perpendicularly to the microflares&#8217; ring structure.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers proposed that these tiny jets may be triggered by the reconnection of small-angle misaligned magnetic fields within a braided <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/magnetic+field\/\" rel=\"tag noopener\" class=\"textTag\" target=\"_blank\">magnetic field<\/a>. This new mechanism challenges the traditional view and provides an alternative explanation for the energy release associated with microflares.<\/p>\n<p>Notably, the proposed mechanism has similarities to the process of nanoflares, which have long been hypothesized to be a key source of coronal heating. By showing that small-angle <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/magnetic+reconnection\/\" rel=\"tag noopener\" class=\"textTag\" target=\"_blank\">magnetic reconnection<\/a> can trigger both nanoflares and microflares, the study reveals a self-similarity in the physical mechanisms of flares across different energy levels. This implies that the basic physical processes involved in solar <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/flare\/\" rel=\"tag noopener\" class=\"textTag\" target=\"_blank\">flare<\/a> energy release may be universal across larger energy scales.<\/p>\n<p>This study not only offers fresh perspectives on the triggering mechanisms of microflares but also provides important clues for investigating whether similar self-similar properties exist in larger-scale flares.<\/p>\n<p><strong>More information:<\/strong><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tQingmei Wang et al, Moving Plasma Structures and Possible Driving Mechanisms of Solar Microflares Observed with High-resolution Coronal Imaging, The Astrophysical Journal Letters (2025). <a data-doi=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.3847\/2041-8213\/adbf96\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DOI: 10.3847\/2041-8213\/adbf96<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tProvided by<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/partners\/chinese-academy-of-sciences\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chinese Academy of Sciences<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"icon_open\" href=\"https:\/\/english.cas.cn\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<strong>Citation<\/strong>:<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tScientists discover new trigger mechanism for solar microflares (2025, April 17)<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tretrieved 19 April 2025<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfrom https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2025-04-scientists-trigger-mechanism-solar-microflares.html\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"a) Snapshots of 11 tiny ejections (E1-E11, as marked by red arrows) captured in EUI\/HRIEUV 174 \u00c5 images.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3845],"tags":[75,76,74,71,70,72,53,73,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-33339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-physics","8":"tag-materials","9":"tag-nanotech","10":"tag-physics","11":"tag-physics-news","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-science-news","14":"tag-technology","15":"tag-technology-news","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114365489979406907","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}