The Sun releases an enormous amount of energy during explosive solar activities, such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections (Webb and Howard, 2012; Aschwanden et al., 2017; Benz, 2017). The solar corona can be heated up to tens of millions of degrees and a large number of charged particles can be accelerated to nearly the speed of light (Desai and Giacalone, 2016; Reames, 2017). Heated plasmas and high-energy particles increase solar radiations across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from radio to gamma-ray wavelengths, which can have a profound effect on the Earth’s upper atmosphere immediately after about 8 minutes. These create additional ionization and heating in the Earth’s upper atmosphere, leading to radio blackout, GNSS signal interferences and tracking loss, increased drag on spacecraft, as well as affecting the global electric circuit (GEC), and many other phenomena (Bothmer and Daglis, 2007; Buzulukova and Tsurutani, 2022; Tacza et al., 2022). Recent studies have demonstrated that the solar flare effects can extend to the Earth’s magnetosphere via electrodynamic coupling (Liu et al., 2021; Liu et al., 2024). When the high-energy particles propagate through the interplanetary medium and arrive at the vicinity of the Earth, known as solar energetic particle (SEP) events, they can pose hazardous radiation threats to astronauts and spacecraft electronics in space (Vainio et al., 2009; Shea and Smart, 2012).
This Research Topic aims to collect scientific contributions on high-energy processes on the Sun and their geospace consequences. Eight research articles and one review are contained in this electronic book, focusing on multi-wavelength observations of solar flares, acceleration and transport of energetic particles, and impacts of solar eruptions on the coupled magnetosphere–ionosphere–thermosphere system.
Qiu proposed that brightening-dimming sequences in the lower solar atmosphere can be used to identify the properties of magnetic reconnection or plasma expansion of overlying magnetic structures in the corona. This novel method was examined by the observations of two eruptive flares.
Kuznetsov et al. presented a detailed analysis of an M-class solar flare on 2023 March 6 utilizing the combined observations in microwave and hard X-ray (HXR) from the Siberian Radioheliograph (SRH) and the HXR Imager on board the Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S/HXI). They further modeled the microwave emission in the 3D reconstructed flare loop using the GX simulator, which can provide spatial and spectral diagnostics of energetic electrons.
Kong et al. modeled the propagation of energetic electrons in the flare loop by numerically solving the particle transport equation. They highlighted the effects of turbulent pitch-angle scattering on the trapping/precipitation and anisotropic distribution of energetic electrons in solar flares. The simulation results help us understand the observation signatures of nonthermal HXR and microwave emissions and the excitation of coherent solar radio bursts.
Tang et al. investigated the impact of the evolution of the electron energy spectrum and velocity distribution as they propagate along the flare loop on the electron cyclotron maser instability/emission, one of the known radiation mechanisms of coherent radio bursts.
Reames reviewed how the abundance of elements can provide unique insights into the origin of SEPs in both impulsive and large gradual SEP events. The review discussed the observed properties of four sources of SEPs and the associated physical processes, including magnetic reconnection in solar jets and the seed particles for particle acceleration at CME-driven shocks.
Shalchi discussed the particle transport equation that includes the physics of pitch-angle scattering by magnetic turbulence. A new approach was developed to obtain the solutions of the equation, indicating that the two-dimensional subspace approximation is equivalent to using the telegraph equation.
Zhou et al. developed a three-component MHD model to study the evolution of the solar wind from 1 to 150 AU in the heliosphere, and the numerical simulation results were compared with the observations from New Horizons, Voyager 1 and 2. They highlighted the effects of Anomalous Cosmic Rays (ACRs) on shock-like structures of the solar wind in the outer heliosphere.
Zhang and Wang investigated a moderate geomagnetic storm in 2022 associated with a huge geohazard event of the Tonga volcano eruption. They utilized GPS total electron content (TEC) and numerical simulations from the Thermosphere Ionosphere Electrodynamic General Circulation Model (TIEGCM) to understand the plasma responses of the ionosphere-thermosphere coupled system.
Qiao et al. presented the forecast of ionospheric F2 layer (foF2) at low latitudes using deep learning models. The Informer–foF2 model demonstrates better prediction performance in predicting variations from several hours up to 48 h, compared to the widely used long short-term memory model.
Statements
Author contributions
XK: Writing–original draft, Writing–review and editing. JL: Writing–review and editing. GL: Writing–review and editing.
Funding
The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. XK is supported by the National Key R&D Program of China under grant 2022YFF0503002 (2022YFF0503000), the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grants 42074203.
Acknowledgments
The authors of this editorial sincerely thank all the editors, reviewers, and authors for their contributions and efforts to this Research Topic.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Generative AI statement
The author(s) declare that no Generative AI was used in the creation of this manuscript.
Publisher’s note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
References
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Summary
Keywords
solar eruptions, solar energetic particles, x-ray and gamma-ray emissions, solar radio bursts, particle acceleration and transport, space weather, magnetosphere-ionosphere-thermosphere coupling
Citation
Kong X, Liu J and Li G (2025) Editorial: New insights into high-energy processes on the Sun and their geospace consequences. Front. Astron. Space Sci. 12:1560418. doi: 10.3389/fspas.2025.1560418
Received
14 January 2025
Accepted
23 January 2025
Published
10 February 2025
Volume
12 - 2025
Edited and reviewed by
Joseph E. Borovsky, Space Science Institute (SSI), United States
Updates
Copyright
© 2025 Kong, Liu and Li.
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*Correspondence: Xiangliang Kong, kongx@sdu.edu.cn
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.