Flare model successes and shortcomings: an observational overview

Abstract:

A wide variety of modeling techniques have been used simulate solar eruptions as a means of relating the observational signatures of solar flares to the underlying physics. In this talk, I will focus on various kinds of magnetohydrodynamic models, discuss the observations that they have successfully explained, and propose areas where they fall short. For example, one-dimensional loop models have been successfully employed to probe the physics of chromospheric evaporation, and have been able to explain some spectroscopic signatures of flare ribbons and reproduce bulk observations of flares such as emission light curves. Two dimensional MHD models are able to reproduce magnetic field observations (from microwaves) and the thermodynamics and dynamics in the reconnection current sheet region. Three dimensional MHD models, while computationally expensive, can reproduce complicated eruption dynamics. However, purely MHD models are not able to simulate the accelerated particles in a flare, which constitute an important part of the energy transfer that leads to EUV and X-ray emissions.