A Diachronic Topological Analysis of the 13th May 2005 Solar Flare

Magnetic reconnection is generally accepted as the energy release mechanism in solar flares. To further our understanding of the location and evolution of reconnection, we combine the analysis of hard X-ray (HXR) sources observed by RHESSI with a 3d, quantitative model of the changing magnetic field. It is hypothesised that, in the time leading up to a solar flare, the magnetic configuration becomes increasingly stressed until some critical point is reached. We assume here a relationship between the build-up of energy in stressed coronal magnetic fields and the measurement of the change in separator flux per unit length. We find that separator groups that are associated with HXR footpoint sources show evidence of stressing, and that consequently the analytic techniques developed here may be a modest step towards revealing potential sites of major flares.