Experimental simulation on solar flare

Experimental simulation on the explosion of Solar Flare is performed. Two parallel current-carrying plasma columns are generated separately. Merging velocity of plasma columns is observed by a fast image converter camera. Merging velocity is found to be strongly dependent on plasma current and stationary magnetic field. Hot ion with keV energy is found after current merging. It is considered to indicate the direct energy conversion from magnetic energy to kinetic energy of plasma through interaction between plasma currents. (author)