Modelling the impulsive phase of solar flares

Solar flares are the most energetic events in the solar system. In order to study this sudden release of energy and evaluate the response of the solar chromosphere to the deposition of thermal energy, we simulate the conditions of the solar atmosphere by creating a 1D plane-parallel atmospheric model and analyze the energy transport of a beam of non-thermal electrons that is injected at the top of the coronal loop. This is done using a numerical model which combines the radiative hydrodynamic equations (RADYN code - Carlsson & Stein, 1992) with the calculation of particle acceleration and transport (Flare code - Petrosian & Liu, 2004). With this model, it is for example possible to compare the emission of solar flares in several lines with available observations. The assemblage of high resolution chromospheric flare observations from the IRIS imaging spectrograph makes it an excellent time for this work. We discuss how accelerated particle heating and energy deposition rate are affected by the variation of cut-off energy and flux of non-thermal electrons as well as spectral index and investigate the response of the atmosphere to the acceleration of particles. Our flare simulation treats each atom in non-LTE condition and calculates in detail the transitions between its energy levels. It also assumes an optically thick atmosphere, which is crucial for understanding how energy is transported from the chromosphere deep into the photosphere.