Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T04:37:33.102Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Millimeter, Microwave, Hard X-Ray, and Soft X-Ray Observations of Energetic Electron Populations in Solar Flares

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

M. R. Kundu
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742
S. M. White
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742
N. Gopalswamy
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742
J. Lim
Affiliation:
Solar Astronomy 264-33, Caltech, Pasadena CA 91125; also Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

We present comparisons of multiwavelength data for a number of solar flares observed during the major campaign of 1991 June. The different wavelengths are diagnostics of energetic electrons in different energy ranges: soft X-rays are produced by electrons with energies typically below 10 keV, hard X-rays by electrons with energies in the range 10-200 keV, microwaves by electrons in the range 100 keV-1 MeV, and millimeter-wavelength emission by electrons with energies of 0.5 MeV and above. The flares in the 1991 June active period were remarkable in two ways: all have very high turnover frequencies in their microwave spectra, and very soft hard X-ray spectra. The sensitivity of the microwave and millimeter data permit us to study the more energetic (>0.3 MeV) electrons even in small flares, where their high-energy bremsstrahlung is too weak for present detectors. The millimeter data show delays in the onset of emission with respect to the emissions associated with lower energy electrons and differences in time profiles, energy spectral indices incompatible with those implied by the hard X-ray data, and a range of variability of the peak flux in the impulsive phase when compared with the peak hard X-ray flux which is two orders of magnitude larger than the corresponding variability in the peak microwave flux. All these results suggest that the hard X-ray-emitting electrons and those at higher energies which produce millimeter emission must be regarded as separate populations. This has implications for the well-known “number problem” found previously when comparing the numbers of nonthermal electrons required to produce the hard X-ray and radio emissions.

Subject headings: Sun: flares — Sun: radio radiation — Sun: X-rays, gamma rays

Type
Solar Flares
Copyright
Copyright © The American Astronomical Society 1994

References

Brown, J.C. 1971, Sol. Phys., 18, 489 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dennis, B.R., & Zarro, D.M. 1993, Solar Phys., in pressGoogle Scholar
Dulk, G.A., & Marsh, K.A. 1982, ApJ, 259, 350 Google Scholar
Gary, D.E. 1985, ApJ, 297, 799 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guidice, D.A., & Castelli, J.P. 1975, Sol. Phys., 44, 155 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holt, S.S., & Ramaty, R. 1969, Sol. Phys., 8, 119 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kai, K. 1986, Sol. Phys., 104, 235 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kai, K., Kosugi, T., & Nitta, N. 1985, PASJ, 37, 155 Google Scholar
Kaufmann, P., Correia, E., Costa, J.E.R., Vaz, A.M.Z., & Dennis, B.R. 1985, Nature, 313, 380 Google Scholar
Kosugi, T., Dennis, B.R., & Kai, K. 1988, ApJ, 324, 1118 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kundu, M.R. 1961, J. Geophys. Res., 66, 4308 Google Scholar
Kundu, M.R., White, S.M., Gopalswamy, N., Bieging, J.H., & Hurford, G.J. 1990, ApJ, 358, L69 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lim, J., White, S.M., Kundu, M.R., & Gary, D.E. 1992, Sol. Phys., 140, 343 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lin, R.P., Schwartz, R.A., Pelling, R.M., & Hurley, K.C. 1981, ApJ, 251, L109 Google Scholar
Lu, E.T., & Petrosian, V. 1989, ApJ, 338, 1122 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lu, E.T., & Petrosian, V. 1990, Ap J, 354, 735 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neupert, W.M. 1968, ApJ, 153, L59 Google Scholar
Nitta, N., & Kosugi, T. 1986, Sol. Phys., 105, 73 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petrosian, V. 1982, ApJ, 255, L85 Google Scholar
Ramaty, R. 1969, ApJ, 158, 753 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Staehli, M., Gary, D.E., & Hurford, G.J. 1989, Sol. Phys., 120, 351 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Takakura, T. 1967, Sol. Phys., 1, 304 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Takakura, T. 1972, Sol. Phys., 26, 151 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, R.J., Starr, R., & Crannell, C.-J. 1985, Sol. Phys., 95, 323 Google Scholar
Vestrand, W.T. 1988, Sol. Phys., 118, 95 Google Scholar
White, S.M., & Kundu, M.R. 1992, Sol. Phys., 141, 347 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, S.M., & Kundu, M.R. 1993, in preparationGoogle Scholar
White, S.M., Kundu, M.R., Bastian, T.S., Gary, D.E., Hurford, G.J., Kucera, T., & Bieging, J.H. 1992, ApJ, 384, 656 Google Scholar
White, S.M., Murphy, R., Schwartz, R.A., Kundu, M.R., Gopalswamy, N., & Lim, J. 1993, in preparationGoogle Scholar