SECONDARY FLARE RIBBONS OBSERVED BY THE SOLAR DYNAMICS OBSERVATORY

Using the observations from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) and the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory, we statistically investigate the flare ribbons (FRs) of 19 X-class flares of the 24th solar cycle from 2010 June to 2013 August. Of these 19 flares, the source regions of 16 can be observed by AIA and the FRs of each flare are well detected, and 11 of the 16 display multiple ribbons. Based on the ribbon brightness and the relationship between the ribbons and post-flare loops, we divide the multiple ribbons into two types: normal FRs, which are connected by post-flare loops and have been extensively investigated, and secondary flare ribbons (SFRs), which are weaker than the FRs, not connected by post-flare loops, and always have a short lifetime. Of the 11 SFRs, 10 appear simultaneously with the FRs, and none of them have post-flare loops. The last one, on the other hand, appears 80 minutes later than the FR, lasts almost two hours, and also has no post-flare loops detected. We suggest that the magnetic reconnection associated with this SFR is triggered by the blast wave that results from the main flare. These observations imply that in some flare processes, more than two sets of magnetic loops or more than twice the number of magnetic reconnections are involved.