Non-thermal processes in large solar flares

We analyze particle acceleration processes in large solar flares, using observations of the August, 1972, series of large events. The energetic particle populations are estimated from the hard X-ray and γ-ray emission, and from direct interplanetary particle observations. The collisional energy losses of these particles are computed as a function of height, assuming that the particles are accelerated high in the solar atmosphere and then precipitate down into denser layers. We compare the computed energy input with the flare energy output in radiation, heating, and mass ejection, and find for large proton event flares that:

1. The ～10–10² keV electrons accelerated during the flash phase constitute the bulk of the total flare energy.
2. The flare can be divided into two regions depending on whether the electron energy input goes into radiation or explosive heating. The computed energy input to the radiative quasi-equilibrium region agrees with the observed flare energy output in optical, UV, and EUV radiation.
3. The electron energy input to the explosive heating region can produce evaporation of the upper chromosphere needed to form the soft X-ray flare plasma.
4. Very intense energetic electron fluxes can provide the energy and mass for interplanetary shock wave by heating the atmospheric gas to energies sufficient to escape the solar gravitational and magnetic fields. The threshold for shock formation appears to be ～10³¹ ergs total energy in >20 keV electrons, and all of the shock energy can be supplied by electrons if their spectrum extends down to 5–10 keV.
5. High energy protons are accelerated later than the 10–10² keV electrons and most of them escape to the interplanetary medium. The energetic protons are not a significant contributor to the energization of flare phenomena. The observations are consistent with shock-wave acceleration of the protons and other nuclei, and also of electrons to relativistic energies.
6. The flare white-light continuum emission is consistent with a model of free-bound transitions in a plasma with strong non-thermal ionization produced in the lower solar chromosphere by energetic electrons. The white-light continuum is inconsistent with models of photospheric heating by the energetic particles. A threshold energy of ～5×10³⁰ ergs in >20 keV electrons is required for detectable white-light emission.

The highly efficient electron energization required in these flares suggests that the flare mechanism consists of rapid dissipation of chromospheric and coronal field-aligned or sheet currents, due to the onset of current-driven Buneman anomalous resistivity. Large proton flares then result when the energy input from accelerated electrons is sufficient to form a shock wave.     

Rotational discontinuities in an anisotropic plasma—II

The theoretical work on rotational discontinuities in an anisotropic plasma is extended and the results are presented in a form more convenient for comparison with observations in the solar wind. Diagrams are presented to help observers identify rotational discontinuities using the values of ρ, B and β on either side. Under average solar wind conditions at 1 AU it is found that B and ρ change by at most a factor of ～1·7, and in a β ? 0·4 plasma ρ changes by at most a factor of 1·1 and B is virtually constant. The changes in physical parameters across a typical rotational discontinuity are illustrated, and the special cases of downstream isotropy and of $\text{p⊥}\text{Bρ}\text{=}\text{constant}$ are considered in detail.     

Large-Scale Active Coronal Phenomena in YOHKOH SXT Images. III. Enhanced Post-Flare Streamer

We demonstrate several events where an eruptive flare close to the limb gave rise to a transient coronal streamer visible in X-rays in Yohkoh SXT images, and analyze one of these events, on 28–29 October 1992, in detail. A coronal helmet streamer began to appear 2 hours after the flare, high above rising post-flare loops; the streamer became progressively narrower, reaching its minimum width 7–12 hours after the flare, and widened again thereafter, until it eventually disappeared. Several other events behaved in a similar way. We suggest that the minimum width indicates the time when the streamer became fully developed. All the time the temperature in the helmet streamer structure was decreasing, which can explain the subsequent fictitious widening of the X-ray streamer. It is suggested that we may see here two systems of reconnection on widely different altitudes, one giving rise to the post-flare loops while the other creates (or re-forms) the coronal helmet streamer. A similar interpretation was suggested in 1990 by Kopp and Polettofor post-flare giant arches observed on board the SMM; indeed, there are some similarities between these post-flare helmet streamers and giant arches and, with the low spatial resolution of SMM instruments, it is possible that some helmet streamers could have been considered to be a kind of a giant arch.     

A possible boundary condition in bacterial sulfur isotope fractionation

The sulfur isotopic effect (δ³⁴S) shown by batch cultures of six species of sulfate-reducing bacteria was ?14.6%. (S.D.4.1).Fractionation appeared to be independent of electron donor, temperature (between 35 and 55°) and the extent of sulfate reduction.