Watch: May.19 Prof. Francesca Zuccarello：Solar eruptive events: an overview
Speaker: Francesca Zuccarello
Solar Physics at the University of Catania (Italy)
May.19, 2022
4pm GMT+8
The main observational properties and the most recent models of solar eruptive events (i.e., filament eruptions, flares and coronal mass ejections – CMEs) will be reviewed. Although these eruptive events are often correlated to each other, it is not yet clear whether the occurrence of a flare or of a filament eruption might produce a CME (or vice-versa). What observations show is that during solar flares radiation can be emitted across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, spanning from gamma rays to radio waves. These emissions, related to the conversion of magnetic energy into other forms of energy (kinetic, thermal, waves) through magnetic reconnection, are due to different physical processes that can occur in different layers of the Sun. This means that flare observations need to be carried out using instruments operating in different wave-bands in order to achieve a complete scenario of the processes going on. Therefore, taking into account that most of the radiative energy is emitted at optical and UV wavelengths, observations carried out from space need to be complemented by observations carried out from ground-based telescopes. Moreover, taking into account the capital importance of these eruptive events in various aspects of the Sun-Earth connection, referring also to our need to protect our technologically-dependent society from the risk of impulsive radiation flux and relativistic charged particles streaming from the Sun, some recent efforts to predict flares/CMEs occurrence will be described.
About the Speaker
Francesca Zuccarello is Associate Professor of Solar Physics at the University of Catania (Italy). Her research activity is focused on the study of magnetic phenomena occurring in the solar atmosphere and on the interactions of the magnetized plasma with the circumterrestrial environment. Specifically, her main areas of research are: solar flares (precursors, magnetic energy storage, magnetic field configuration, multi-wavelength analysis, correlation with CMEs); emergence and evolution of active regions (high resolution spectropolarimetric observations of emerging flux, interaction between the emerging flux and the ambient magnetic field, moving magnetic features, processes of formation of orphan penumbrae); Space Weather (correlation between CMEs and flares and impact of CMEs on the circum-terrestrial environment). Francesca Zuccarello is a member of the Science Advisory Group of the European Solar Telescope, member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Rosseland Center for Solar Physics of the University of Oslo and member of the External Advisory Board of the H2020 SWATNet (Space Weather Awareness Training Network) Project.
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