New Evidence for Return Currents in Solar Flare Loops

Details New Evidence for Return Currents in Solar Flare Loops New Evidence for Return Currents in Solar Flare Loops

May 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agusmsh51c..07b&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2008, abstract #SH51C-07

Physics

7519 Flares, 7554 X-Rays, Gamma Rays, And Neutrinos, 7859 Transport Processes

Scientific paper

The common flare scenario comprises particle acceleration in the corona and transport to the chromosphere along the field lines of magnetic loops. This leads to characteristic hard X-ray emission from the corona (coronal source) and the chromosphere (footpoints). Simple models presume that both emissions are caused by the same electron population. Assuming thin target bremsstrahlung emission from the coronal source and thick target bremsstrahlung from the footpoints, the shape and relations between the hard X-ray spectra of the distinct sources can be computed. With RHESSI, it has become possible to observe hard X-ray spectra both from the corona as well as from the footpoints with high spectral resolution. Therefore the so-called thin-thick target model can be tested directly. We analyzed coronal source and footpoint spectra of well observed RHESSI limb events and quantitatively compared them to theoretical predictions. In the analyzed flares, the difference in spectral hardness between the coronal and footpoint sources differs significantly from the theoretically expected value. Transport effects in the form of non-collisional energy loss were introduced to the thin-thick target model to account for the discrepancy. We show that those energy losses can be interpreted by an electric field and associated return current. This is direct evidence for return currents in solar flare loops.

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