SIZE DISTRIBUTIONS OF SOLAR FLARES AND SOLAR ENERGETIC PARTICLE EVENTS
- Space Vehicles Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Sunspot, NM 88349 (United States)
- Atmospheric Environmental Research, Lexington, MA 02421 (United States)
- IZMIRAN, Troitsk, Moscow Region 142190 (Russian Federation)
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
We suggest that the flatter size distribution of solar energetic proton (SEP) events relative to that of flare soft X-ray (SXR) events is primarily due to the fact that SEP flares are an energetic subset of all flares. Flares associated with gradual SEP events are characteristically accompanied by fast ({>=}1000 km s{sup -1}) coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that drive coronal/interplanetary shock waves. For the 1996-2005 interval, the slopes ({alpha} values) of power-law size distributions of the peak 1-8 A fluxes of SXR flares associated with (a) >10 MeV SEP events (with peak fluxes {>=}1 pr cm{sup -2} s{sup -1} sr{sup -1}) and (b) fast CMEs were {approx}1.3-1.4 compared to {approx}1.2 for the peak proton fluxes of >10 MeV SEP events and {approx}2 for the peak 1-8 A fluxes of all SXR flares. The difference of {approx}0.15 between the slopes of the distributions of SEP events and SEP SXR flares is consistent with the observed variation of SEP event peak flux with SXR peak flux.
- OSTI ID:
- 22078558
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 756, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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