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Abstract Recent observations and simulations indicate that solar flares undergo extremely complex 3D evolution, making 3D particle transport models essential for understanding electron acceleration and interpreting flare emissions. In this study, we investigate this problem by solving Parker’s transport equation with 3D MHD simulations of solar flares. By examining energy conversion in the 3D system, we evaluate the roles of different acceleration mechanisms, including reconnection current sheet (CS), termination shock (TS), and supra-arcade downflows (SADs). We find that large-amplitude turbulent fluctuations are generated and sustained in the 3D system. The model results demonstrate that a significant number of electrons are accelerated to hundreds of keV and even a few MeV, forming power-law energy spectra. These energetic particles are widely distributed, with concentrations at the TS and in the flare looptop region, consistent with results derived from recent hard X-ray (HXR) and microwave (MW) observations. By selectively turning particle acceleration on or off in specific regions, we find that the CS and SADs effectively accelerate electrons to several hundred keV, while the TS enables further acceleration to MeV. However, no single mechanism can independently account for the significant number of energetic electrons observed. Instead, the mechanisms work synergistically to produce a large population of accelerated electrons. Our model provides spatially and temporally resolved electron distributions in the whole flare region and at the flare footpoints, enabling synthetic HXR and MW emission modeling for comparison with observations. These results offer important insights into electron acceleration and transport in 3D solar flare regions. 

Abstract Solar flare above-the-loop-top (ALT) regions are vital for understanding solar eruptions and fundamental processes in plasma physics. Recent advances in three-dimensional (3D) magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations have revealed unprecedented details on turbulent flows and MHD instabilities in flare ALT regions. Here, for the first time, we examine the observable anisotropic properties of turbulent flows in ALT by applying a flow-tracking algorithm on narrow-band extreme-ultraviolet images that are observed from the face-on viewing perspective. First, the results quantitatively confirm the previous observation that vertical motions dominate and that the anisotropic flows are widely distributed in the entire ALT region with the contribution from both upflows and downflows. Second, the anisotropy shows height-dependent features, with the most substantial anisotropy appearing at a certain middle height in ALT, which agrees well with the MHD modeling results where turbulent flows are caused by Rayleigh–Taylor-type instabilities in the ALT region. Finally, our finding suggests that supra-arcade downflows (SADs), the most prominently visible dynamical structures in ALT regions, are only one aspect of turbulent flows. Among these turbulent flows, we also report the antisunward-moving underdense flows that might develop due to MHD instabilities, as suggested by previous 3D flare models. Our results indicate that the entire flare fan displays group behavior of turbulent flows where the observational bright spikes and relatively dark SADs exhibit similar anisotropic characteristics. 

Abstract We deliberately select three flares to investigate heating effects of supra-arcade downflows (SADs) on the surrounding fan plasma. Prior work found in one flare that the plasma around most SADs tends to heat up or stay the same temperature, accompanied by discernible signatures of the adiabatic heating due to plasma compression as well as viscous heating due to viscous motions of plasma. We extend this work to more flares and find that the heating effects of the SADs are also present in these events. The adiabatic heating is dominant over the viscous heating in each event. The adiabatic heating in the two M1.3 flares, being on the order of about 0.02–0.18 MK s⁻¹, is fairly comparable. In the more energetic X1.7 flare, the adiabatic heating is on the order of 0.02–0.3 MK s⁻¹, where we observe a more pronounced temperature increase during which dozens of SADs descend through the fan. As SADs constantly contribute to the heating of the surrounding fan plasma, the areas where SADs travel through tend to cool much slower than the areas without SADs, and the plasma of higher temperature ends up concentrating in areas where SADs frequently travel through. We also find that the cooling rate of areas without SADs is ∼1000 K s⁻¹, much slower than would be expected from normal conductive cooling. Instead, the cooling rate can be interpreted nicely by a process where conductive cooling is suppressed by turbulence. 

Magnetic reconnection is the key mechanism for energy release in solar eruptions, where the high-temperature emission is the primary diagnostic for investigating the plasma properties during the reconnection process. Non-thermal broadening of high-temperature lines has been observed in both the reconnection current sheet (CS) and flare loop-top regions by UV spectrometers, but its origin remains unclear. In this work, we use a recently developed three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation to model magnetic reconnection in the standard solar flare geometry and reveal highly dynamic plasma flows in the reconnection regions. We calculate the synthetic profiles of the Fe XXI 1354 Å line observed by the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) spacecraft by using parameters of the MHD model, including plasma density, temperature, and velocity. Our model shows that the turbulent bulk plasma flows in the CS and flare loop-top regions are responsible for the non-thermal broadening of the Fe XXI emission line. The modeled non-thermal velocity ranges from tens of km s −1 to more than two hundred km s −1 , which is consistent with the IRIS observations. Simulated 2D spectral line maps around the reconnection region also reveal highly dynamic downwflow structures where the high non-thermal velocity is large, which is consistent with the observations as well. 

Abstract We have developed a tracking algorithm to determine the speeds of supra-arcade downflows (SADs) and set up a system to automatically track SADs and measure some interesting parameters. By conducting an analysis of six flares observed by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on the Solar Dynamics Observatory, we detect more smaller and slower SADs than prior work, due to the higher spatial resolution of our observational data. The inclusion of these events with smaller and slower SADs directly results in lower median velocities and widths than in prior work, but the fitted distributions and evolutions of the parameters still show good consistency with prior work. The observed distributions of the widths, speeds, and lifetimes of SADs are consistent with log-normal distributions, indicating that random and unstable processes are responsible for generating SADs during solar eruptions. Also, we find that the fastest SADs occur at approximately the middle of the height ranges. The number of SADs in each image versus time shows that there are “rest phases” of SADs, when few SADs are seen. These findings support the idea that SADs originate from a fluid instability. We compare our results with a numerical simulation that generates SADs using a mixture of the Rayleigh–Taylor instability and the Richtmyer–Meshkov instability, and find that the simulation generates quantities that are consistent with our observational results.