Particle Acceleration and Energy Release in Solar Flares

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7514 Energetic Particles (2114), 7519 Flares, 7534 Radio Emissions, 7554 X Rays, Gamma Rays, And Neutrinos, 2118 Energetic Particles, Solar

Scientific paper

The Sun is the most powerful particle accelerator in the solar system; both solar flares and fast CMEs appear to accelerate ions up to tens of GeV and electrons to hundreds of MeV. Solar flares are the most powerful explosions, releasing up to 10e32-33 ergs in 10-1000s. The accelerated ~10-100 keV electrons (and possibly >~1 MeV ions) contain >~10-50% of this energy, indicating that the particle acceleration and energy release processes are intimately linked. How the Sun releases this energy, presumably stored in the magnetic fields of the corona, and how it rapidly and efficiently accelerates electrons and ions to high energies is presently unknown. Microflares and nanoflares occur as frequently as every few minutes, and the energy input averaged over all flares may play an important role in coronal heating. Furthermore, flare impulsive acceleration events inject energetic particles into the interplanetary medium thousands of times per year. The recently launched HESSI (High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager) spacecraft provides new high resolution imaging (~2 arcsec)and spectroscopy (~keV) of flare hard X-ray/gamma-ray continuum and gamma-ray lines, produced by energetic electrons and ions at the Sun, respectively. I discuss our present understanding of the fundamental physical processes in flares in the light of HESSI and other spacecraft and ground observations in the present solar maximum.

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