AGILE detection of C-class solar flares at the beginning of the new solar cycle 25

ATel #14172; A. Ursi (INAF/IAPS), C. Pittori (SSDC and INAF/OAR), P. Tempesta (Telespazio), M. Tavani (INAF/IAPS, and Univ. Roma Tor Vergata), F. Verrecchia (SSDC and INAF/OAR), M. Cardillo, C. Casentini, G. Piano (INAF/IAPS), A. Bulgarelli, V. Fioretti, N. Parmiggiani (INAF/IASF-Bo), F. Lucarelli (SSDC and INAF/OAR), I. Donnarumma (ASI), S. Vercellone (INAF/OA-Brera), F. Gianotti, M. Trifoglio (INAF/IASF-Bo), A. Giuliani, S. Mereghetti, P. Caraveo, F. Perotti (INAF/IASF-Mi), A. Chen (Wits University), A. Argan, E. Costa, E. Del Monte, Y. Evangelista, M. Feroci, F. Lazzarotto, I. Lapshov, L. Pacciani, P. Soffitta, V. Vittorini (INAF/IAPS), G. Di Cocco, F. Fuschino, M. Galli, C. Labanti (INAF/IASF-Bo), M. Marisaldi (INAF/OAS-Bologna, and Bergen University), A. Pellizzoni, M. Pilia, A. Trois (INAF/OA-Cagliari), G. Barbiellini, E. Vallazza (INFN Trieste), F. Longo (Univ. Trieste and INFN Trieste), A. Morselli, P. Picozza (INFN and Univ. Roma Tor Vergata), M. Prest (Univ. dell'Insubria), P. Lipari, D. Zanello (INFN and Univ. Roma Sapienza), P. W. Cattaneo, A. Rappoldi (INFN Pavia), A. Ferrari (Univ. Torino and CIFS), F. Paoletti (East Windsor RSD Hightstown and INAF/IAPS), L. A. Antonelli (INAF/OAR), P. Giommi, L. Salotti, G. Valentini, and F. D'Amico (ASI)
on 13 Nov 2020; 20:27 UT
Credential Certification: Fabrizio Lucarelli (fabrizio.lucarelli@ssdc.asi.it)

Tweet

The AGILE satellite is revealing bright solar activity, starting October 2020.

From October 27 to November 12, 2020 the AGILE Anti-Coincidence scientific ratemeters oriented toward the Sun (AC Lat4; 80-200 keV) detected about 45 intense X-ray emissions from C-class solar flares.

In particular, on October 27 and 29, 2020 and on November 5 and 8, 2020, AGILE clearly observed prominent X-ray emission from the solar flares emitted by the solar active regions AR 12778, AR 12779, and AR 12781, respectively, as reported by GOES satellites (https://www.goes.noaa.gov/).

In our preliminary analysis, using a dedicated Solar Flare event selection, solar activity is identified as X-ray emission with flux >=3 times higher than the typical flux of the Quiet Sun. We report information about the most intense X-ray bursts detected by AC Lat4, together with the class of the corresponding solar flare:

C4.3 | AR 12778 | UT 2020-10-27 06:14:30 | peak counts = 14859 | total counts = 1006398 | mean duration = 150 s

C4.3 | AR 12779 | UT 2020-10-29 11:44:03 | peak counts = 11688 | total counts = 4720341 | mean duration = 1485 s

C7.3 | AR 12781 | UT 2020-11-05 00:08:16 | peak counts = 24444 | total counts = 11149783 | mean duration = 1800 s

C1.4 | AR 12781 | UT 2020-11-05 02:50:12 | peak counts = 11694 | total counts = 396360 | mean duration = 115 s

C2.3 | AR 12781 | UT 2020-11-05 09:54:16 | peak counts = 27906 | total counts = 880041 | mean duration = 520 s

C5.7 | AR 12781 | UT 2020-11-08 05:16:43 | peak counts = 13680 | total counts = 221884 | mean duration = 60 s

The AGILE AC Lat4 ratemeter light curves can be found at http://www.agilescienceapp.it/notices/AGILE_SF_20201022-20201113.png .

Further analysis is still in progress. AGILE (Astrorivelatore Gamma a Immagini LEggero) is an X-ray and Gamma-ray astronomical satellite of the Italian Space Agency (ASI).