Drifting Pulsation Structure at the Very Beginning of the 2017 September 10 Limb Flare

Abstract

Drifting pulsation structures (DPSs) are important radio fine structures usually observed at the beginning of eruptive solar flares. It has been suggested that DPSs carry important information on the energy release processes in solar flares. We study DPS observed in an X8.2-class flare on 2017 September 10 in the context of spatial and spectral diagnostics provided by microwave, EUV, and X-ray observations. We describe DPS and its substructures that were observed for the first time. We use a new wavelet technique to reveal characteristic periods in DPS and their frequency bands. Comparing the periods of pulsations found in this DPS with those in previous DPSs, we found new very short periods in the 0.09–0.15 s range. We present Expanded Owens Valley Solar Array images and spectra of microwave sources observed during the DPS. This DPS at its very beginning has pulsations in two frequency bands (1000–1300 MHz and 1600–1800 MHz), which are interconnected by fast drifting bursts. We show that these double-band pulsations started just at the moment when the ejected filament splits apart in a tearing motion at the location where a signature of the flare current sheet later appeared. Using the standard flare model and previous observations of DPSs, we interpret these double-band pulsations as a radio signature of superthermal electrons trapped in the rising magnetic rope and flare arcade at the moment when the flare magnetic reconnection starts. The results are discussed in a scenario with the plasmoid in the rising magnetic rope.