Multi-wavelength Observations and Modeling of a Microflare: Constraining Non-thermal Particle Acceleration

Solar microflares emit about six orders of magnitude less energy than the largest X-class flares, and are capable of accelerating electrons. In this work we analyze a small B-class microflare that occurred on April 29 2021 and was observed simultaneously by the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) and the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) hard X-ray instrument. The IRIS chromospheric and transition region observations of the flare ribbon show spectral characteristics that are typical signatures of energy deposition by non-thermal electrons in the lower atmosphere. The presence of the non-thermal particles is also confirmed directly by fitting the NuSTAR spectral observations. We show that, by combining IRIS and NuSTAR multi-wavelength observations from the corona to the lower atmosphere with hydrodynamic simulations using the RADYN code, we can provide strict constraints on electron-beam heated flare models. This work presents the first NuSTAR, IRIS and RADYN joint analysis of a non-thermal microflare, and presents a self-consistent picture of the flare-accelerated electrons in the corona and the chromospheric response to those electrons.