It has been a big mystery what drives filament eruptions and flares. We have studied in detail an X1.8 flare and its associated filament eruption that occurred in NOAA Active Region 9236 on November 24,2000. For this work we have analyzed high temporal (about 1 minute) and spatial (about 1 arcsec) resolution images taken by Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, Hα centerline and blue wing (-0.6Å) images from Big Bear Solar Observatory, and 1600 Å UV images by the Transition Region and Corona Explorer (TRACE). We have found that there were several transient brightenings seen in Hα and, more noticeably in TRACE 1600 Å images around the preflare phase. A closer look at the UV brightenings in 1600 Å images reveals that they took place near one end of the erupting filament, and are a kind of jets supplying mass into the transient loops seen in 1600 Å. These brightenings were also associated with canceling magnetic features (CMFs) as seen in the MDI magnetograms. The flux variations of these CMFs suggest that the flux cancellation may have been driven by the emergence of the new flux. For this event, we have estimated the ejection speeds of the filament ranging from 10 to 160 km s-1 for the first twenty minutes. It is noted that the initiation of the filament eruption (as defined by the rise speed less than 20 km s-1) coincided with the preflare activity characterized by UV brightenings and CMFs. The speed of the associated LASCO CME can be well extrapolated from the observed filament speed and its direction is consistent with those of the disturbed UV loops associated with the preflare activity. Supposing the Hα/UV transient brightenings and the canceling magnetic features are due to magnetic reconnect ion in the low atmosphere, our results may be strong observational evidence supporting that the initiation of the filament eruption and the preflare phase of the associated flare may be physically related to low-atmosphere magnetic reconnection.

A white light flare was observed at the limb on 16 August 1989 in He 10830 Å spectra, Hα slit jaw photo-grams, and white light filter-grams of ⋋=5600 Å ±800 Å. The kernels of the white light flare are not spatially related with Ha brightenings, suggesting that the flare energy would be released at the photosphere.

Recently, we have set up a new digital CCD camera system, MicroMax YHS-1300 manufactured by Roper Scientific for Hα observation by Solar Flare Telescope at Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory. It has a 12 bit dynamic range, a pixel number of 1300×1030, a thermoelectric cooler, and an electric shutter. Its readout speed is about 3 frames per second and the dark current is about 0.05 e-/p/s at -10°. We have made a system performance test by confirming the system linearity, system gain, and system noise that its specification requires. We have also developed a data acquisition software which connects a digital camera con-troller to a PC and acquires Hα images via Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 under Windows 98. Comparisons of high quality Hα images of AR 9169 and AR 9283 obtained from SOFT with the corresponding images from Learmonth Solar Observatory in Australia confirm that our Hα digital observational system is performed properly. Finally, we present a set of Hα images taken from a two ribbon flare occurred in AR 9283.

In this study we present a new improved nonlinear calibration method for vector magnetograms made by the Solar Flare Telescope of BOAO. To identify Fe I 6302.5 line, we have scanned monochromatic images of the line integrated over filter passband, changing the location of the central transmission wavelength of a Lyot filter. Then we obtained a filter-convolved line profile, which is in good agreement with spectral atlas data provided by the Sacramento Peak Solar Observatory. The line profile has been used to derive calibration coefficients of longitudinal and transverse fields, employing the conventional line slope method under the weak field approximation. Our improved nonlinear calibration method has also been used to calculate theoretical Stokes polarization signals with various angles of inclination of magnetic fields. For its numerical test, we have compared input magnetic fields with the calibrated ones, which have been derived from the new improved non-linear method and the conventional method respectively. The numerical test shows that the calibrated fields obtained from the improved method are consistent with the input fields, but not with those from the conventional method. Finally, we applied our new improved method to a dipole model which characterizes a typical field configuration of a single, round sunspot. It is noted that the conventional method remarkably underestimates the transverse field component near the inner penumbra.

SOFT( So–––lar F––lare T––elescope So_larF_lareT_elescope ) installed at BOAO(Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory) is purposed for observing solar active regions using four refractors on single mount with a 400"×300" 400"×300" field of view: Two refractors with a diameter of 15cm(f15) are observe the white light and Hα Hα , and the other two refractors with a diameter of 20cm(f8) are observe the magnetic field distribution and Doppler shifts at the solar chromosphere. Three Lyot filters, one of the most important observational instruments, are installed on the optical rails for VMG, LMG, and Hα Hα that possible to very narrow pass band observation under high precision stability of temperature. From the combination of KD*P and quarter wave plate in the Lyot filter possible observe the magnetic fields strength and doppler shifts by using the characteristics of polarization components. In this paper, we introduce the basic characteristics, optical system, and monitor system of the SOFT.

Using the data on the occurrences of the Ho: and soft X-ray flares for the time interval of January 1, 1986-May :31, 1994, we have studied the middle term(30-300days) pericities of the solar flare production during the activity cycle 22. Power analysis of the time seies of daily Hα flare index in the northern hemisphere shows prominent periodicities at 220, 120, 109, and 92 days(see Figures l(a) and l(b)), while in the southern hemisphere, those at 267, 213, 183, 167, and 107 days are apparent, though their peaks are not so distint as those in the northern hemisphere. Periodogram of daily soft X-ray flare index also reveal the periodicities at 279, 205, 164, 117, and 91 days in the northern hemisphere, and at 266, 220, 199, 162, 120, and 100 days in the southern hemisphere. Howeer, the 155-day periodicity reported for the earlier cycles, 19, 20, and 21, could not be confirmed in our analysis. to be submitted to Solar Physics; an extended abstract.

Utilizing a Calcium filter, a large two ribbon flare of an importance 2.5Xj31? was recorded at. King Abdul-Aziz University Solar Observatory (KAAUSO) at the 30th of October 1991. This chromosphenc flare observation, which is of special importance since it is rarely reported, was for a flare that occurred near the south west of the equator at the vicinity of a large sunspot group on an active region known as AR 6891. The observed foot points of this flare had a strange behavior in which the separating motion of the ribbons were not typical of most flares, rather were nearly orthogonal. In this article we present the characteristics of the main sunspot group of this active region and try to investigate its evolution and fragmentation with time. Information regarding magnetic fields and velocity fields are necessary to understand the restructuring of the magnetic field pattern and plasma motion, and hence the changes that could lead to the occurrence of such an interesting flare.

Based on X-ray (1-8 Å) flux data for 1972-1995 the integral spectra of solar flare energy were computed. It has been shown that the spectral index β of the integral energy spectrum (IES) vanes systematically with the 11-year cycle phase. The interval of $\beta$ 수식 이미지-variations (0.47 <β<1) is characteristic of UV-Cet stars. The maximum energy of the X-ray flares does not exceed 10 32 erg.