An international doctoral student from Nigeria, J. Oloketuyi, who is studying in Yunnan Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, observed that solar X-ray flares responded differently to the emergence of sunspot groups. The findings was published on The Astrophysical Journal.

A total of 36354 flares events were recorded in his paper. The B and C flares account for over 90% of the total flare eruptions. The report covers the most two recent solar cycles 23 and 24.

The B flares responded to the sunspot group emergence by deviating whenever the sunspot group numbers rise or fall around 100. The B flares then form a cyclic variation around 5 years similar to the 11 years of the solar cycle. However, the B-flares correlated negatively with the sunspot group numbers.

On the other hand, for the C flares, it seems to be consistent with the emergence of the sunspot numbers so that the flare could be accurately predicted using the sunspot numbers. The C flares have a positive correlation coefficient of 0.868, the highest point obtained among all the flares analyzed.

The differences in response from the solar flare classes in their variations, correlations and cycles also raise questions on mechanisms of their sources and eruptions from the solar corona.

This discovery would offer more insights and information about the emergence of sunspots and the solar magnetic flux.

Contact:

J. Oloketuyi, Yunnan Observatories, CAS

jacob.oloketuyi@ynao.ac.cn