Relative yield of thermal and nonthermal emission during weak flares observed by STIX during September 20-25, 2021

Abstract

The disparate nature of thermal-nonthermal energy partition during flares, particularly during weak flares, is still an open issue. Following the Neupert effect, quantifying the relative yield of X-ray emission in different energy bands can enable inferring the underlying energy release mechanism. During September 20-25, 2021, the Solar Orbiter mission - being closer to the Sun ($\sim$0.6 AU) and having a moderate separation angle (<40$^{\circ}$) from the Sun-Earth line provided a unique opportunity to analyze multi-wavelength emission from $\sim$200 (mostly weak) flares, commonly observed by the Spectrometer Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX), STEREO-A, GOES, and SDO observatories. Associating the quotient (q$_{f}$) of hard X-ray fluence (12-20 keV) and soft X-ray flux (4-10 keV) with the peak SXR flux enabled us to identify strongly non-thermal flares. Multi-wavelength investigation of spectral and imaging mode observations of the 20 strongly non-thermal weak flares reveals an inverse relationship of q$_{f}$ with the emission measure (EM) (and density), and a positive relationship with the flare plasma temperature. This indicates that plasma in tenuous loops attains higher temperatures compared to that in the denser loops, in response to nonthermal energy deposition. This is in agreement with the plasma parameters of the coronal loops, as derived by applying the one-dimensional Palermo Harvard (PH) hydrodynamical code to the coronal loop plasma having different initial coronal loop base pressures when subjected to similar heating input. Our investigation, therefore, indicates that the plasma parameters of the flaring loop in the initial phase have a decisive role in thermal-nonthermal energy partitioning.