1. Coronal Heating as Determined by the Solar Flare Frequency Distribution Obtained by Aggregating Case Studies
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James Paul Mason, Alexandra Werth, Colin G. West, Allison Youngblood, Donald L. Woodraska, Courtney L. Peck, Arvind J. Aradhya, Yijian Cai, David Chaparro, James W. Erikson, Koushik Ganesan, T. R. Geerdts, Thi D Hoang, Thomas M. Horning, Yan Jin, Haixin Liu, Noah Lordi, Zheng Luo, Thanmay S. Menon, Josephine C. Meyer, Emma E Nelson, Kristin A. Oliver, Jorge L Ramirez Ortiz, Andrew Osborne, Alyx Patterson, Nick Pellatz, John Pitten, Nanako Shitara, Daniel Steckhahn, Aseem Visal, Hongda Wang, Chaoran Wang, Evan Wickenden, John Wilson, Mengyu Wu, Nikolay Yegovtsev, Ingrid H Zimmermann, James Holland Aaron, Jumana T. Abdullah, Jonathan M. Abrams, Riley Abrashoff, Andres B. Acevedo, Iker Acha, Daniela M. Meza Acosta, Megan M. Adam, Dante Q. Adams, Kalvyn N Adams, Elena R Adams, Zainab A. Akbar, Ushmi H. Akruwala, Adel Al-Ghazwi, Batool H. Alabbas, Areej A. Alawadhi, Yazeed A. Alharbi, Mohammed S. Alahmed, Mohammed A. Albakr, Yusef J. Albalushi, Jonathan Albaum, Ahmed Aldhamen, Nolan Ales, Mohammad Alesmail, Abdulelah Alhabeeb, Dania Alhamli, Isehaq Alhuseini, Suhail Alkaabi, Tameem Alkhezzi, Mohamed Alkubaisi, Nasser Allanqawi, Martin Allsbrook, Yousef A. Almohsen, Justin Thomas Almquist, Teeb Alnaji, Yousef A Alnasrallah, Nicholas Alonzi, Meshal Alosaimi, Emeen Alqabani, Mohammad Alrubaie, Reema A. Alsinan, Ava L. Altenbern, Abdullah Altokhais, Saleh A. Alyami, Federico Ameijenda, Hamzi Amer, Meggan Amos, Hunter J. Anderson, Carter Andrew, Jesse C Andringa, Abigail Angwin, Gabreece Van Anne, Andrew Aramians, Camila Villamil Arango, Jack. W. Archibald, Brian A. Arias-Robles, Maryam Aryan, Kevin Ash, Justin Astalos, N. S. Atchley-Rivers, Dakota N. Augenstein, Bryce W. Austin, Abhinav Avula, Matthew C. Aycock, Abdulrahman A. Baflah, Sahana Balaji, Brian Balajonda, Leo M Balcer, James O. Baldwin, David J Banda, Titus Bard, Abby Barmore, Grant M. Barnes, Logan D. W. Barnhart, Kevin M. Barone, Jessica L. Bartman, Claire Bassel, Catalina S Bastias, Batchimeg Bat-Ulzii, Jasleen Batra, Lexi Battist, Joshua Bay, Simone Beach, Sara Beard, Quinn I Beato, Ryan Beattie, Thomas Beatty, Tristan De La Beaujardiere, Jacob N. Beauprez, M. G. Beck, Lily Beck, Simone E. Becker, Braden Behr, Timothy A. Behrer, Joshua Beijer, Brennan J. Belei, Annelene L. Belknap, Aislyn Bell, Caden Bence, Evan Benke, Naomi Berhanu, Zachary D. Berriman-Rozen, Chrisanna Bertuccio, Owen A. Berv, Blaine B. Biediger, Samuel J Biehle, Brennen Billig, Jacob Billingsley, Jayce A. Billman, Connor J. Biron, Gabrielle E. Bisacca, Cassidy A. Blake, Guillermo Blandon, Olivia Blevins, Ethan Blouin, Michal Bodzianowski, Taylor A. Boeyink, Matthew Bondar, Lauren Bone, Alberto Espinosa De Los Monteros Bonilla, William T Borelli, Luke R. Borgerding, Troy Bowen, Christine Boyer, Aidan Boyer, Aidan P. Boyle, Tom Boyne, Donovan Branch, Ariana E. Brecl, David J. Brennan, Alexander J Brimhall, Jennifer L. Brockman, Sarah Brookins, Gabriel T. Brown, Cameron L. Brown, Ryan Brown, Jordi Brownlow, Grant Brumage-Heller, Preston J. Brumley, Samuel Bryan, A. Brzostowicz, Maryam Buhamad, Gigi Bullard-Connor, J. R. Ramirez Bunsow, Annemarie C. Burns, John J. Burritt, Nicholas David Burton, Taylor Burton, Celeste Busch, Dylan R. Butler, B. W. Buxton, Malena C. Toups, Carter C. Cabbage, Breonna Cage, Jackson R. Cahn, Andrew J Campbell, Braden P. Canales, Alejandro R. Cancio, Luke Carey, Emma L. Carillion, Michael Andrew Carpender, Emily Carpenter, Shivank Chadda, Paige Chambers, Jasey Chanders, Olivia M. Chandler, Ethan C. Chang, Mitchell G. Chapman, Logan T. Chapman, S. Chavali, Luis Chavez, Kevin Chen, Lily Chen, Sam Chen, Judy Chen, Jenisha Chhetri, Bradyn Chiles, Kayla M. Chizmar, Katherine E Christiansen, Nicholas A. Cisne, Alexis Cisneros, David B. Clark, Evelyn Clarke, Peter C Clarkson, Alexis R. Clausi, Brooke Cochran, Ryan W. Coe, Aislinn Coleman-Plante, Jake R. Colleran, Zachary Colleran, Curran Collier, Nathaniel A. Collins, Sarah Collins, Jack C. Collins, Michael Colozzi, Aurora Colter, Rebecca A. Cone, Thomas C. Conroy, Reese Conti, Charles J. Contizano, Destiny J. Cool, Nicholas M. Cooper, Jessica S Corbitt, Jonas Courtney, Olivia Courtney, Corben L. Cox, Wilmsen B. Craig, Joshua B. Creany, Anastasia Crews, K. A. Crocker, A. J. Croteau, Christian J. Crow, Zoe Cruse, Avril Cruz, Tyler L. Curnow, Hayden Current, Riley T. Curry, Libby Cutler, Aidan St. Cyr, Frederick M. Dabberdt, Johnston Daboub, Olivia Damgaard, Swagatam Das, Emma A. B. Davis, Elyse Debarros, Sean Deel, Megan E. Delasantos, Tianyue Deng, Zachary Derwin, Om Desai, Kai Dewey, John S. Dias, Kenzie A. Dice, R. Dick, Cyrus A. Dicken, Henry Dietrick, Alexis M. Dinser, Alyssa M. Dixon, Thomas J. Dixon, Helen C. Do, Chris H Doan, Connor Doane, Joshua Dodrill, Timothy Doermer, Lizbeth Montoya Dominguez, J. Dominguez, Emerson N. Domke, Caroline R. Doran, Jackson A. Dorr, Philip Dorricott, Danielle C. Dresdner, Michael Driscoll, Kailer H. Driscoll, Sheridan J. Duncan, Christian Dunlap, Gabrielle M. Dunn, Tien Q. Duong, Tomi Oshima Dupeyron, Peter Dvorak, Andrew East, Andrew N. East, Bree Edwards, Lauren Ehrlich, Sara I. Elbashir, Rasce Engelhardt, Jacob Engelstad, Colin England, Andrew Enrich, Abbey Erickson, Benjamin Erickson, Nathan Evans, Calvin A Ewing, Elizabeth A. Eyeson, Ian Faber, Avery M. Fails, John T Fauntleroy, Kevin Fell, Zitian Feng, Logan D. Fenwick, Nikita Feoktistov, Ryann Fife, John Alfred D. Figueirinhas, Jean-Paul Fisch, Emmalee Fischer, Jules Fischer-White, Aidan F. Fitton, Alexander Fix, Lydia Flackett, Fernando Flores, Aidan Floyd, Leonardo Del Foco, Adeduni Folarin, Aidan E. Forbes, Elise Fortino, Benjamin L. Fougere, Alexandra A. Fowler, Margaret Fox, James M. French, Katherine V. French, Florian G. Frick, Calvin R. Fuchs, Bethany E. S. Fuhrman, Sebastian Furney, Moutamen Gabir, Gabriela Galarraga, Skylar Gale, Keala C. Gapin, A. J. Garscadden, Rachel Gasser, Lily Gayou, Emily E. Gearhart, Jane Geisman, Julianne R. Geneser, Sl Genne, Julia G Gentile, Eleanor Gentry, Jacob D. George, Nathaniel James Georgiades, Phillip Gerhardstein, Clint Gersabeck, Bandar Abu Ghaith, Dorsa Ghiassi, B. C. Giebner, Dalton Gilmartin, Connor B. Gilpatrick, Michael Gjini, Olivia Golden, Nathan T. Golding, C. A. Goldsberry, Angel R. Gomez, Angel A. Gomez, Sean Gopalakrishnan, Mariam Gopalani, Nicholas Gotlib, Alaina S. Graham, Michael J Gray, Alannah H. Gregory, Joshua A. Gregory, Kristyn Grell, Justus Griego, Nicholas F. Griffin, Kyle J. Griffin, Matt Guerrero, Nicole Gunderson, Mutian Guo, E. R. Gustavsson, Grace K. Hach, L. N. Haile, Jessica Haines, Jack J. Mc Hale, Ryder Buchanan Hales, Mark S. Haley, Jacqueline L. Hall, Sean R. Hamilton, Soonhee Han, Tyler Hand, Luke C. Hanley, Connor M Hansen, Joshua A. Hansen, Jonathan Hansson, Tony Yunfei Hao, Nicholas Haratsaris, Isabelle Hardie, Dillon F. Hardwick, Cameron T. 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Jeseritz, Trevor Jesse, Soo Yeun Ji, Yufan Jiang, Owen Johnson, Matthew Johnson, Sawyer Johnson, Julia Johnston, Braedon Y. Johnston, Olivia M. Jones, M. R. Jones, Tara Jourabchi, Tony A. House Jr., Parker Juels, Sabrina J. H. T. Kainz, Emily Kaiser, Nicolas Ian Kallemeyn, Madison H. Kalmus, Etash Kalra, Margaret Kamenetskiy, Jeerakit Kanokthippayakun, Shaun D. Kapla, Brennan J. Karsh, Caden J. Keating, Morgan A. Kelley, Michael P. Kelley, Nicholas Kelly, James Kelly, Teagan Kelly, Christopher M Kelly, Kellen Kennedy, Cayla J. Kennedy, Forrest Kennedy, Abigail Kennedy, Liana Kerr-Layton, Marilyn Ketterer, Ibraheem A. Khan, Usman Khan, Sapriya Khanal, Jack L. Kiechlin, Dominic Killian, Kevin Kim, Brian T. Kim, Matthew M. Kim, Jake Kim, Aspen Kimlicko, Isabel M Kipp, Hunter B. Kirkpatrick, Natalie Kissner, Emily R. Kite, Olivia R. Kleinhaus, Philip Whiting Knott, Will Koch, Greta Koenig, Emily Koke, Thomas Kokes, Yash S. Kothamdi, Zack Krajnak, Zoe M. Kresek, Dylan Kriegman, Jake E. Kritzberg, Davis J. Krueger, Bartlomiej Kubiak, Kirsten Kuehl, Chrisanne Kuester, Nicolas A. Kuiper, Aman Priyadarshi Kumar, Connor Kuybus, Daniel Kwiatkowski, Quintin Y. Lafemina, Kevin Lacjak, Kyle Lahmers, Antonia Lam, Kalin Landrey, Maxwell B. Lantz, Zachary Larter, Benjamin P. Lau, Megan Lauzon, Rian Lawlor, Tyler Learned, E. C. Lee, Junwon Lee, Adrianna J. Lee, Justin Lee, Alexis Ying-Shan Lee, Christian J Lee, Nathaniel F. Lee, Linzhi Leiker, Dylan Lengerich, Cecilia Leoni, Adrienne R. Lezak, David Y. Li, Isaac Li, Ryan Z. Liao, Bridget Linders, Morgan I Linger, Katherine B. Linnane, Sam Lippincott, Barrett Lister, Shelby D Litton, Nianzi Liu, Steven Y. Liu, Timothy W. Logan, Nathan Londres, Mia C. Lonergan, Emily Lookhoff, N. E. Loomis, Christian Lopez, Justin Loring, Jeffrey Lucca, Dax Lukianow, Nathan M. Cheang, William Macdonald, Claire A. Madonna, Kasey O. Madsen, Tiffany E. Maksimuk, Macguire Mallory, Ryan A. Malone, Blake Maly, Xander R. Manzanares, Aimee S. Maravi, Serafima M. Marcus, Nasreen Marikar, Josie A. Marquez, Mathew J. Marquez, Lauren Marsh, Toni Marsh, Logan S. Martin, Alexa M. Martinez, Jose R. Martinez, Hazelia K. Martinez, Cara Martyr, Mirna Masri, Giorgio Matessi, Adam Izz Khan Mohd Reduan Mathavan, Randi M. Mathieson, Kabir P. Mathur, Graham Mauer, Victoria A. Mayer, Liam Mazzotta, Glen S. Mccammon, Rowan Mcconvey, Tyler Mccormick, Andrew Mccoy, Kelleen Mcentee, Meaghan V. Mcgarvey, Riley M. Mcgill, James K. Mcintyre, Finbar K. Mckemey, Zane Mcmorris, Jesse J. Mcmullan, Ella Mcquaid, Caden Mcvey, Kyle Mccurry, Mateo M. Medellin, Melissa Medialdea, Amar Mehidic, Stella Meillon, Jonah B. Meiselman-Ashen, Sarah Mellett, Dominic Menassa, Citlali Mendez, Patricia Mendoza-Anselmi, Riley Menke, Sarah Mesgina, William J. Mewhirter, Ethan Meyer, Aya M. Miften, Ethan J. Miles, Andrew Miller, Joshua B. Miller, Emily B. Millican, Sarah J. Millican, Dylan P. Mills, Josh Minimo, Jay H. Misener, Alexander J. Mitchell, Alexander Z. 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Padgette, Jacqueline Padilla, Mallory Palizzi, Madeleine L. Palmgren, Adler Palos, Luke J. Pan, Nathan L. Parker, Sasha R. Parker, Evan J. Parkinson, Anish Parulekar, Paige J. Pastor, Kajal Patel, Akhil Patel, Neil S. Patel, Samuel Patti, Catherine Patton, Genevieve K. Payne, Matthew P. Payne, Harrison M. Pearl, Charles B. Beck Von Peccoz, Alexander J. Pedersen, Lily M. Pelster, Munisettha E. Peou, J. S. Perez, Freddy Perez, Anneliese Pesce, Audrey J. Petersen, B. Peterson, Romeo S. L. Petric, Joshua Pettine, Ethan J. Phalen, Alexander V. Pham, Denise M. Phan, Callie C Pherigo, Lance Phillips, Justin Phillips, Krista Phommatha, Alex Pietras, Tawanchai P. Pine, Sedique Pitsuean-Meier, Andrew M. Pixley, Will Plantz, William C. Plummer, Kaitlyn E. Plutt, Audrey E. Plzak, Kyle Pohle, Hyden Polikoff, Matthew Pollard, Madelyn Polly, Trevor J. Porter, David Price, Nicholas K. Price, Gale H. Prinster, Henry Austin Propper, Josh Quarderer, Megan S. Quinn, Oliver Quinonez, Devon Quispe, Cameron Ragsdale, Anna L. Rahn, M. Rakhmonova, Anoush K Ralapanawe, Nidhi Ramachandra, Nathaniel Ramirez, Ariana C. Ramirez, Sacha Ramirez, Parker Randolph, Anurag Ranjan, Frederick C Rankin, Sarah Grace Rapaport, Nicholas O Ratajczyk, Mia G. V. Ray, Brian D. Reagan, John C. Recchia, Brooklyn J. Reddy, Joseph Reed, Charlie Reed, Justin Reeves, Eileen N. Reh, Ferin J. Von Reich, Andrea B. Reyna, Alexander Reynolds, Hope Reynolds, Matthew Rippel, Guillermo A. Rivas, Anna Linnea Rives, Amanda M. Robert, Samuel M. Robertson, Maeve Rodgers, Stewart Rojec, Andres C. Romero, Ryan Rosasco, Beth Rossman, Michael Rotter, Tyndall Rounsefell, Charlotte Rouse, Allie C. Routledge, Marc G. Roy, Zoe A. Roy, Ryan Ruger, Kendall Ruggles-Delgado, Ian C. Rule, Madigan Rumley, Brenton M. Runyon, Collin Ruprecht, Bowman Russell, Sloan Russell, Diana Ryder, David Saeb, J. Salazar, Violeta Salazar, Maxwell Saldi, Jose A. Salgado, Adam D. Salindeho, Ethan S. 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Solorio, Lincoln Solt, Caitlin Soon, Ava A Spangler, Benjamin C. Spicer, Ashish Srivastava, Emily Stamos, Peter Starbuck, Ethan K. Stark, Travis Starling, Caitlyn Staudenmier, Sheen L. Steinbarth, Christopher H. Steinsberger, Tyler Stepaniak, Ellie N. Steward, Trey Stewart, T. C. Stewart, Cooper N. Stratmeyer, Grant L. Stratton, Jordin L. Stribling, S. A Sulaiman, Brandon J Sullivan, M. E. Sundell, Sohan N. Sur, Rohan Suri, Jason R. Swartz, Joshua D. Sweeney, Konner Syed, Emi Szabo, Philip Szeremeta, Michael-Tan D. Ta, Nolan C. Tanguma, Kyle Taulman, Nicole Taylor, Eleanor Taylor, Liam C. Taylor, K. E. Tayman, Yesica Tellez, Richard Terrile, Corey D Tesdahl, Quinn N. Thielmann, Gerig Thoman, Daniel Thomas, Jeffrey J. Thomas, William N. Thompson, Noah R. Thornally, Darien P. Tobin, Kelly Ton, Nathaniel J. Toon, Kevin Tran, Bryn Tran, Maedee Trank-Greene, Emily D. Trautwein, Robert B. Traxler, Judah Tressler, Tyson R. Trofino, Thomas Troisi, Benjamin L. Trunko, Joshua K. Truong, Julia Tucker, Thomas D Umbricht, C. H. Uphoff, Zachary T. Upthegrove, Shreenija Vadayar, Whitney Valencia, Mia M. Vallery, Eleanor Vanetten, John D. Vann, Ilian Varela, Alexandr Vassilyev, Nicholas J. Vaver, Anjali A. Velamala, Evan Vendetti, Nancy Ortiz Venegas, Aditya V. Vepa, Marcus T. Vess, Jenna S. Veta, Andrew Victory, Jessica Vinson, Connor Maklain Vogel, Michaela Wagoner, Steven P. Wallace, Logan Wallace, Caroline Waller, Jiawei Wang, Keenan Warble, N. R. D. Ward-Chene, James Adam Watson, Robert J. Weber, Aidan B. Wegner, Anthony A Weigand, Amanda M. Weiner, Ayana West, Ethan Benjamin Wexler, Nicola H. Wheeler, Jamison R. White, Zachary White, Oliver S. White, Lloyd C. Whittall, Isaac Wilcove, Blake C. Wilkinson, John S. Willard, Abigail K. Williams, Sajan Williams, Orion K. Wilson, Evan M. Wilson, Timothy R. Wilson, Connor B. Wilson, Briahn Witkoff, Aubrey M. Wolfe, Jackson R. Wolle, Travis M. Wood, Aiden L. Woodard, Katelynn Wootten, Catherine Xiao, Jianing Yang, Zhanchao Yang, Trenton J. Young, Isabel Young, Thomas Zenner, Jiaqi Zhang, Tianwei Zhao, Tiannie Zhao, Noah Y. Zhao, Chongrui Zhou, Josh J Ziebold, Lucas J. Ziegler, James C. Zygmunt, Jinhua Zhang, and H. J. Lewandowski
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Solar physics ,Solar flares ,Astrostatistics distributions ,Astrophysics ,QB460-466 - Abstract
Flare frequency distributions represent a key approach to addressing one of the largest problems in solar and stellar physics: determining the mechanism that counterintuitively heats coronae to temperatures that are orders of magnitude hotter than the corresponding photospheres. It is widely accepted that the magnetic field is responsible for the heating, but there are two competing mechanisms that could explain it: nanoflares or Alfvén waves. To date, neither can be directly observed. Nanoflares are, by definition, extremely small, but their aggregate energy release could represent a substantial heating mechanism, presuming they are sufficiently abundant. One way to test this presumption is via the flare frequency distribution, which describes how often flares of various energies occur. If the slope of the power law fitting the flare frequency distribution is above a critical threshold, α = 2 as established in prior literature, then there should be a sufficient abundance of nanoflares to explain coronal heating. We performed >600 case studies of solar flares, made possible by an unprecedented number of data analysts via three semesters of an undergraduate physics laboratory course. This allowed us to include two crucial, but nontrivial, analysis methods: preflare baseline subtraction and computation of the flare energy, which requires determining flare start and stop times. We aggregated the results of these analyses into a statistical study to determine that α = 1.63 ± 0.03. This is below the critical threshold, suggesting that Alfvén waves are an important driver of coronal heating.
- Published
- 2023
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