Click on the image above for a larger version of the .gif file.
Not a flare cartoon as such, this nevertheless introduces an important subject: the use of energetic particles as tracers of the coronal magnetic field in and near flares. The metric type III, V, and U bursts all are in the category of "fast-drift bursts," identified by the Australian radio astronomers with beams of weakly relativistic electrons. These electrons can quickly appear at one A.U. to be counted directly by in-situ electron detectors, so they show that the field lines are open. But what does this really mean, and which field lines are we talking about? Note that in this cartoon it is not the standard current-sheet geometry associated with magnetic reconnection, but a coronal null instead (at least in 2D).
September 24, 2006