HARD X-RAY ASYMMETRY LIMITS IN SOLAR FLARE CONJUGATE FOOTPOINTS
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, MS 108, Houston, TX, 77005 (United States)
The transport of energetic electrons in a solar flare is modeled using a time-dependent one-dimensional Fokker–Planck code that incorporates asymmetric magnetic convergence. We derive the temporal and spectral evolution of the resulting hard X-ray (HXR) emission in the conjugate chromospheric footpoints, assuming thick target photon production, and characterize the time evolution of the numerically simulated footpoint asymmetry and its relationship to the photospheric magnetic configuration. The thick target HXR asymmetry in the conjugate footpoints is found to increase with magnetic field ratio as expected. However, we find that the footpoint HXR asymmetry saturates for conjugate footpoint magnetic field ratios ≥4. This result is borne out in a direct comparison with observations of 44 double-footpoint flares. The presence of such a limit has not been reported before, and may serve as both a theoretical and observational benchmark for testing a range of particle transport and flare morphology constraints, particularly as a means to differentiate between isotropic and anisotropic particle injection.
- OSTI ID:
- 22667176
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 832, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ANISOTROPY
ASYMMETRY
BENCHMARKS
CHROMOSPHERE
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
CONFIGURATION
CONVERGENCE
EMISSION
FOKKER-PLANCK EQUATION
GAMMA RADIATION
HARD X RADIATION
MAGNETIC FIELDS
ONE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
PHOTONS
SOLAR FLARES
SOLAR PARTICLES
SUN
TAIL ELECTRONS
TIME DEPENDENCE