GAMMA-RAY BURST FROM A SOLAR FLARE

Journal Article · Wed Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1959 · J. Geophys. Research

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/JZ064i007p00697· OSTI ID:4267812

Peterson, L E; Winckler, J R

A burst of high-energy radiation coincident with a solar flare has been detected during a balloon flight at 10 g/cm/sup 2/ atmosphere depth and 30 deg geomagnetic latitude over Cuba. The flare occurred at 1305 UT on March 20, 1958, and was associated with solar radio bursts on 1,500 and 10,000 Mc/s. Terrestrial effects included a SID, earth-current disturbances, and a magnetic crotchet. The 18-second burst was detected with an integrating ionization chamber and a single Geiger counter. From these two instruments and their ratio, it is inferred that the radiation is due to a gamma-ray flux of about 2 x 10/sup -5/ ergs/sec cm/sup 2/ peaked in the 200- to 500-kv region, this radiation can be interpreted as bremsstrahlung produced in the solar photosphere from electrons of 0.5 to 1 Mev energy. These same electrons, spiraling in a 1000-gauss field in the flare region, can produce the observed radio burst by betatron radiation. The high- energy electrons represent about 1 per cent of the flare energy. Only about 0.01 per cent of the emitted betatron radiation escaped from the flare region toward the earth. (auth)

• Research Organization: Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• NSA Number: NSA-13-017099
• OSTI ID: 4267812
• Journal Information: J. Geophys. Research, Journal Name: J. Geophys. Research Vol. Vol: 64
• Country of Publication: Country unknown/Code not available
• Language: English

Related Subjects

BALLOONS
BETATRONS
BREMSSTRAHLUNG
COSMIC RADIATION
DETECTION
DISTURBANCES
EARTH
ELECTRONS
EMISSION
ENERGY
FREQUENCY
GAMMA RADIATION
GEIGER-MUELLER COUNTERS
IONIZATION CHAMBERS
KEV RANGE
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MEASURED VALUES
PHOTOSPHERE
PHYSICS AND MATHEMATICS
RADIATIONS
RADIO WAVES
SOLAR FLARES
SUN