Solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs), especially the larger ones, emanate from active regions (ARs). With the aim to understand the magnetic properties that govern such flares and eruptions, we systematically survey all flare events with GOES levels of ≥ M5.0 within 45• from disk center between May 2010 and April 2016. These criteria lead to a total of 51 flares from 29 ARs, for which we analyze the observational data obtained by the Solar Dynamics Observatory. More than 80% of the 29 ARs are found to exhibit δ-sunspots and at least three ARs violate Hale's polarity rule. The flare durations are approximately proportional to the distance between the two flare ribbons, to the total magnetic flux inside the ribbons, and to the ribbon area. From our study, one of the parameters that clearly determine whether a given flare event is CME-eruptive or not is the ribbon area normalized by the sunspot area, which may indicate that the structural relationship between the flaring region and the entire AR controls CME productivity. AR characterization show that even X-class events do not require δ-sunspots or strong-field, high-gradient polarity inversion lines. An investigation of historical observational data suggests the possibility that the largest solar ARs, with magnetic flux of 2×10 23 Mx, might be able to produce "superflares" with energies of order of 10 34 erg. The proportionality between the flare durations and magnetic energies is consistent with stellar flare observations, suggesting a common physical background for solar and stellar flares.

We report on a systematic center-to-limb variation in measured helioseismic travel times, which must be taken into account for an accurate determination of solar interior meridional flows. The systematic variation, found in time-distance helioseismology analysis using SDO/HMI and SDO/AIA observations, is different in both travel-time magnitude and variation trend for different observables. It is not clear what causes this systematic effect. Subtracting the longitude-dependent east-west travel times, obtained along the equatorial area, from the latitude-dependent north-south travel times, obtained along the central meridian area, gives remarkably similar results for different observables. We suggest this as an effective procedure for removing the systematic center-to-limb variation. The subsurface meridional flows obtained from inversion of the corrected travel times are approximately 10 m s −1 slower than those obtained without removing the systematic effect. The detected center-to-limb variation may have important implications in the derivation of meridional flows in the deep interior and needs to be better understood.

Exploiting high-resolution observations made by the Solar Optical Telescope onboard Hinode, we investigate the spatial distribution of power spectral density of oscillatory signal in and around active region NOAA 10935. The G-band data show that in the umbra the oscillatory power is suppressed in all frequency ranges. On the other hand, in Ca II H intensity maps oscillations in the umbra, so-called umbral flashes, are clearly seen with the power peaking around 5.5 mHz. The Ca II H power distribution shows the enhanced elements with the spatial scale of the umbral flashes over most of the umbra but there is a region with suppressed power at the center of the umbra. The origin and property of this node-like feature remain unexplained.

On 2005 September 13 a filament eruption accompanied by a halo coronal mass ejection (CME) occurred in the most flare-productive active region, NOAA 10808, in solar cycle 23. Using multiwavelength observations before the filament eruption on September 13, we investigate the processes leading to the catastrophic eruption. We find that the filament slowly ascended at a speed of 0.1 km s À1 over 2 days before the eruption. During slow ascension, many small flares were observed close to the footpoints of the filament, where new magnetic elements were emerging. On the basis of the observational facts, we discuss the triggering mechanism leading to the filament eruption. We suggest that the process toward the eruption is as follows. First, a series of small flares played a role in changing the topology of the loops overlying the filament. Second, the small flares gradually changed the equilibrium state of the filament and caused the filament to ascend slowly over 2 days. Finally, a C2.9 flare that occurred when the filament was close to the critical point for loss of equilibrium directly led to the catastrophic filament eruption right after it.