We statistically study the relationship between the Lyα and 1–8 Å soft X-ray (SXR) emissions from 658 M- and X-class solar flares observed by the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite during 2006–2016. Based on the peak times of the two wave band emissions, we divide the flares into three types. Type I (III) has an earlier (a later) peak time in the Lyα emission than that in the SXR emission, while type II has nearly the same peak time (within the time resolution of 10 s) between the Lyα and SXR emissions. In these 658 flares, we find that there are 505 (76.8%) type I flares, 10 (1.5%) type II flares, and 143 (21.7%) type III flares, and that the three types appear to have no dependence on the flare duration, flare location, or solar cycle. Besides the main peak, the Lyα emission of the three type flares also shows sub-peaks which can appear in the impulsive or gradual phase of the flare. It is found that the main-peak (for type I) and subpeak (for type III) emissions of Lyα that appear in the impulsive phase follow the Neupert effect in general. This indicates that such Lyα emissions are related to the nonthermal electron beam heating. While the main-peak (for type III) and subpeak (for type I) emissions of Lyα that appear in the gradual phase are supposed to be primarily contributed by the thermal plasma that cools down.

Habitability of an exoplanet is believed to be profoundly affected by activities of the host stars, although the related coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are still rarely detected in solar-like and late-type stars. We here report an observational study on the flares of two M dwarfs triggered by the high-cadence survey performed by the Ground-based Wide Angle Camera system. In both events, the fast, time-resolved spectroscopy enables us to identify symmetric broad Hα emission with not only a nearly zero bulk velocity, but also a large projected maximum velocity as high as ∼700–800 km s−1. This broadening could be resulted from either the Stark (pressure) effect or a flaring-associated CME at the stellar limb. In the context of the CME scenario, the CME mass is estimated to be ∼4 × 1018 and 2 × 1019 g. In addition, our spectral analysis reveals a temporal variation of the line center of the narrow Hα emission in both events. The variation amplitudes are at tens of kilometers per second, which could be ascribed to the chromospheric evaporation in one event, and to a binary scenario in the other one. With the total flaring energy determined from our photometric monitor, we show a reinforced trend in which the larger the flaring energy, the higher the CME mass is.

Circular-ribbon flares (CFs) are a special type of solar flares owing to their particular magnetic topology. In this paper, we conducted a comprehensive statistical analysis of 134 CFs from 2011 September to 2017 June, including 4 B-class, 82 C-class, 40 M-class, and 8 X-class flares. The flares were observed by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft. The physical properties of CFs are derived, including the location, area (A CF), equivalent radius (r CF) assuming a semispherical fan dome, lifetime (τ CF), and peak soft X-ray (SXR) flux in 1–8 Å. It is found that all CFs are located in active regions, with the latitudes between −30° and 30°. The distributions of areas and lifetimes could be fitted with a lognormal function. There is a positive correlation between the lifetime and area. The peak SXR flux in 1–8 Å is well in accord with a power-law distribution with an index of −1.42. For the 134 CFs, 57% of them are accompanied by remote brightenings or ribbons. A positive correlation exists between the total length (L RB) and average distance (D RB) of remote brightenings. About 47% and 51% of the 134 CFs are related to type III radio bursts and jets, respectively. The association rates are independent of flare energies. About 38% of CFs are related to minifilament eruptions, and the association rates increase with flare classes. Only 28% of CFs are related to coronal mass ejections (CMEs), meaning that a majority of them are confined rather than eruptive events. There is a positive correlation between the CME speed and peak SXR flux in 1–8 Å, and faster CMEs tend to be wider.