Elemental Composition Evolution during the 2024 September 30 Solar Eruption: A Comparison of Hot and Cool Plasma Components with Solar Orbiter/SPICE, Hinode/EIS, and Chandrayaan-2/XSM
Abstract
Solar plasma composition differs between the photosphere and corona over a range of timescales, with preferential enhancement of elements with low first ionization potential (FIP). However, the physical origin of the FIP fractionation remains incompletely understood. Furthermore, during flares, the FIP bias also exhibits rapid changes, associated with fast transport of material with different FIP biases. We present novel observations from Solar Orbiter SPICE and EUI, Hinode/EIS, and Chandrayaan-2 XSM instruments, finding rapid abundance changes in the emitting plasma, on timescales of minutes, during the eruptive M7.6-class solar flare observed on 2024 Sept 30. These instruments have wide temperature coverage and find contrasting abundance-evolution patterns between the hotter and cooler plasma components. 3D reconstruction of the active region and additional observations from the Solar Orbiter STIX X-ray telescope show how the hot and cool plasma components, emitting in different spectral regions and observed with the various instruments, sample the plasma composition evolution in distinct locations within the observed flaring plasma. The bright post-flare loop tops observed by SPICE show coronal FIP bias, while the hot plasma observed with XSM exhibits FIP-bias decreasing from coronal to photospheric during the impulsive phase. We interpret these observations as evidence of the X-ray diagnostics seeing hot coronal reconnection outflows mixing with chromospheric plasma as flare loops sequentially energize and relax, explaining why the FIP bias decreases from coronal to a hybrid; and the cool loop tops seen with SPICE show coronal abundances due to coronal material deposited near the looptops.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{molnar2026elemental,
title = {{Elemental Composition Evolution during the 2024 September 30 Solar Eruption: A Comparison of Hot and Cool Plasma Components with Solar Orbiter/SPICE, Hinode/EIS, and Chandrayaan-2/XSM}},
author = {Momchil Molnar and Joseph Plowman and Amir Caspi and Ritesh Patel and Arpit Shrivastav and Tania Varesano and Don Hassler and Ryan French and Biswajit Mondal and L. P. Chitta},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.12881},
eprint = {2608.12881},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.12881},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Elemental Composition Evolution during the 2024 September 30 Solar Eruption: A Comparison of Hot and Cool Plasma Components with Solar Orbiter/SPICE, Hinode/EIS, and Chandrayaan-2/XSM
AU - Momchil Molnar
AU - Joseph Plowman
AU - Amir Caspi
AU - Ritesh Patel
AU - Arpit Shrivastav
AU - Tania Varesano
AU - Don Hassler
AU - Ryan French
AU - Biswajit Mondal
AU - L. P. Chitta
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/13
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.12881
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.12881
AB - Solar plasma composition differs between the photosphere and corona over a range of timescales, with preferential enhancement of elements with low first ionization potential (FIP). However, the physical origin of the FIP fractionation remains incompletely understood. Furthermore, during flares, the FIP bias also exhibits rapid changes, associated with fast transport of material with different FIP biases. We present novel observations from Solar Orbiter SPICE and EUI, Hinode/EIS, and Chandrayaan-2 XSM instruments, finding rapid abundance changes in the emitting plasma, on timescales of minutes, during the eruptive M7.6-class solar flare observed on 2024 Sept 30. These instruments have wide temperature coverage and find contrasting abundance-evolution patterns between the hotter and cooler plasma components. 3D reconstruction of the active region and additional observations from the Solar Orbiter STIX X-ray telescope show how the hot and cool plasma components, emitting in different spectral regions and observed with the various instruments, sample the plasma composition evolution in distinct locations within the observed flaring plasma. The bright post-flare loop tops observed by SPICE show coronal FIP bias, while the hot plasma observed with XSM exhibits FIP-bias decreasing from coronal to photospheric during the impulsive phase. We interpret these observations as evidence of the X-ray diagnostics seeing hot coronal reconnection outflows mixing with chromospheric plasma as flare loops sequentially energize and relax, explaining why the FIP bias decreases from coronal to a hybrid; and the cool loop tops seen with SPICE show coronal abundances due to coronal material deposited near the looptops.
ER -