Elemental Composition Evolution during the 2024 September 30 Solar Eruption: A Comparison of Hot and Cool Plasma Components with Solar Orbiter/SPICE, Hinode/EIS, and Chandrayaan-2/XSM
Journal Article
Overview
abstract
Abstract; Solar plasma composition differs between the photosphere and corona over a range of timescales, with preferential enhancement of elements with low first ionization potential (FIP). However, the physical origin of the FIP fractionation remains incompletely understood. Furthermore, during flares, the FIP bias also exhibits rapid changes, associated with fast transport of material with different FIP biases. We present novel observations from the Solar Orbiter SPICE and Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI), Hinode Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (EIS), and Chandrayaan-2 Solar X-ray Monitor (XSM) instruments, finding rapid abundance changes in the emitting plasma, on timescales of minutes, during the eruptive M7.6-class solar flare observed on 2024 September 30. These instruments have wide temperature coverage and find contrasting abundance evolution patterns between the hotter and cooler plasma components. 3D reconstruction of the active region and additional observations from the Solar Orbiter STIX X-ray telescope show how the hot and cool plasma components, emitting in different spectral regions and observed with the various instruments, sample the plasma composition evolution in distinct locations within the observed flaring plasma. The bright postflare looptops observed by SPICE show coronal FIP bias, while the hot plasma observed with XSM exhibits FIP bias decreasing from coronal to photospheric during the impulsive phase. We interpret these observations as evidence of the X-ray diagnostics seeing hot coronal reconnection outflows mixing with chromospheric plasma as flare loops sequentially energize and relax, explaining why the FIP bias decreases from coronal to a hybrid; and the cool looptops seen with SPICE show coronal abundances due to coronal material deposited near the looptops.
