On the relative importance of radiative, mechanical and magnetic energy release of flares.

Implications of the assumption that solar type II radio bursts result from one-dimensional piston-driven shocks are investigated on the basis of multiwavelength flare observations. For a particular flare event, estimates are obtained for the speed of the shock front, the density behind the shock, the speed of the gas behind the shock front, the magnetic field ahead of the shock, the total mass of the moving gas behind the shock, and the various components of energy associated with this moving gas. The magnetic energy associated with moving type IV bursts is also considered. It is shown that type II bursts and moving type IV bursts indicate the transport through the solar corona of large amounts of mechanical and magnetic energy and that an interplanetary shock wave should be generated when some 10 to the 32nd power erg of magnetic energy is released from a relatively small volume in the high corona.