The hard x rays and gamma-rays from solar flares

Technical Report · Tue Oct 31 23:00:00 EST 1989

OSTI ID:7164221

Mctiernan, J M; Petrosian, V

Radiation of energies from 10 KeV to greater than 10 MeV has been observed during solar flares, and is interpreted to be due to bremsstrahlung by relativistic electrons. A complete treatment of this problem requires solution of the kinetic equation for relativistic electrons and inclusion of synchrotron energy losses. Using the electron distributions obtained from numerical solutions of this equation the bremsstrahlung spectra in the impulsive x ray and gamma-ray regimes are calculated, and the variation of these spectral indices and directivities with energy and observation angle are described. The dependences of these characteristics of the radiation of changes in the solar atmospheric model, including the convergence of the magnetic field, the injected electron spectral index, and most importantly, in the anisotropy of the injected electrons and of the convergence of the magnetic field are also described. The model results are compared with stereoscopic observations of individual flares and the constraints that this data sets on the models are discussed.

• Research Organization: Stanford Univ., CA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 7164221
• Report Number(s): N-90-12458; NASA-CR--185982; NAS--1.26:185982
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640104* -- Astrophysics & Cosmology-- Solar Phenomena
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ANISOTROPY
ATMOSPHERES
BEAMS
BREMSSTRAHLUNG
DATA
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELECTRON BEAMS
ENERGY LOSSES
GAMMA SPECTRA
INFORMATION
LEPTON BEAMS
LOSSES
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NUMERICAL DATA
PARTICLE BEAMS
RADIATIONS
SOLAR ACTIVITY
SOLAR ATMOSPHERE
SOLAR FLARES
SPECTRA
STAR MODELS
SYNCHROTRON RADIATION
THEORETICAL DATA
X-RAY SPECTRA