Despite crummy conference-proceedings graphics, this clearly lays out the key argument in favor of large-scale magnetic reconnection as an explanation of flare ribbons. The basic scenario (the CHSKP model) totally dominates this Archive. Either cartoonists lack initiative, or else there is something to it. Zdenek Svestka, a prominent Czech solar physicist, was an early and enthusiastic supporter of these ideas. The basic "proof" was in the relationship between the "sporadic coronal condensations," observed in the yellow line and interpreted as X-ray sources via the Sudden Phase Anomaly ionospheric effect, and the H-alpha loop prominence systems described e.g. by Bruzek in the 1950s. The definitive proof for this picture could be imagined from this cartoon: the outer edges of the ribbons show peculiar line profiles, as established by the innovative multi-slit spectrograph.
30-Apr-2008