The Viability of Energetic Protons as an Agent for Atmospheric Heating during the Impulsive Phase of Solar Flares

Details The Viability of Energetic Protons as an Agent for Atmospheric Heating during the Impulsive Phase of Solar Flares The Viability of Energetic Protons as an Agent for Atmospheric Heating during the Impulsive Phase of Solar Flares

Oct 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996apj...470l.131e&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal Letters v.470, p.L131

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

11

Sun: Flares

Scientific paper

Recent observations of gamma -ray line intensities in solar flares results have led to the suggestion that the energy content in accelerated protons may rival that of accelerated electrons. However, simply having a large energy content in accelerated protons is not sufficient to ensure an important role for protons in driving the response of the atmosphere to flare energy input: a viable model must also deposit a large fraction of the particle energy at the top of the chromosphere to account for the large increase in soft X-ray emission measure that characterizes the main phase of a flare. While hard X-ray producing electrons indeed deposit a sufficient amount of energy at the appropriate depths in the atmosphere, only protons with a characteristic energy of order 1 MeV do likewise. It is intriguing that a characteristic energy of just this value has been obtained through independent analysis of gamma -ray line intensities. However, it must be noted that protons of this energy do not have a signature in hard X-rays, leading us to conclude that a substantial fraction of the flare energy budget must still reside in deka-keV electrons. In order to complete the global energetic picture, further corroborating observational diagnostics for MeV protons are desirable. In this Letter, we discuss such suitable observations.

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