AGILE detection of the bright M-class solar flare of November 29, 2020
ATel #14236; A. Ursi (INAF/IAPS), C. Pittori (SSDC and INAF/OAR), F. Verrecchia (SSDC and INAF/OAR), F. Longo (Univ. Trieste and INFN Trieste), M. Tavani (INAF/IAPS, and Univ. Roma Tor Vergata), P. Tempesta (Telespazio), 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), 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), A. Antonelli (INAF/OAR), P. Giommi, L. Salotti, G. Valentini, and F. D'Amico (ASI)
on 1 Dec 2020; 15:28 UT
Credential Certification: Carlotta Pittori (carlotta.pittori@asdc.asi.it)
The AGILE satellite detected the remarkable X-ray emission associated to the medium-strength flare (class M4.4) at UT 2020-11-29 13:18:00. The associated solar active region of this event is provisionally numbered AR 12790. This emission lasted about one hour and it released 3.6e7 counts in the Anti-Coincidence scientific ratemeters oriented toward the Sun (AC Lat4; 80-200 keV). The first minutes of the event were not detected, due to Earth occultation, and about 15 minutes of the central part of the emission were not acquired, due to a passage into the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA).
From November 20 to November 30, 2020, AGILE also revealed prominent X-ray emissions from the solar active regions AR 12783, AR 12785, and AR 12786, as reported by GOES satellites (https://www.goes.noaa.gov/). In particular, it detected about 43 bright X-ray emissions from solar flares of class >=C, besides the intense class M4.4 flare reported above.
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 emissions detected by AC Lat4, together with the class of the corresponding solar flares:
C1.9 | AR 12783 | UT 2020-11-20 16:59:32 | peak counts = 5777 | total counts = 2570188 | mean duration = 700 s
C3.3 | AR 12785 | UT 2020-11-22 17:28:04 | peak counts = 10372 | total counts = 3526108 | mean duration = 700 s
C4.3 | AR 12785 | UT 2020-11-23 22:54:53 | peak counts = 5584 | total counts = 1343504 | mean duration = 400 s
C1.4 | AR 12786 | UT 2020-11-28 23:14:28 | peak counts = 7605 | total counts = 3068692 | mean duration = 700 s
M4.4 | AR 12790 | UT 2020-11-29 13:18:15 | peak counts = 40371 | total counts = 35702566 | mean duration = 3600 s
The AGILE AC Lat4 ratemeter light curves can be found at http://www.agilescienceapp.it/notices/AGILE_SF_20201120-20201201.png .
Recent bright solar activity was already revealed by AGILE, starting mid-October, as reported in Ursi et al. (ATel #14172). 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).
AGILE AC Lat4 ratemeter light curves
