Global Energetics of Solar Flares. III. Nonthermal Energies
Abstract
This study entails the third part of a global flare energetics project, in which Ramaty High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) data of 191 M and X-class flare events from the first 3.5 years of the Solar Dynamics Observatory mission are analyzed. We fit a thermal and a nonthermal component to RHESSI spectra, yielding the temperature of the differential emission measure (DEM) tail, the nonthermal power-law slope and flux, and the thermal/nonthermal cross-over energy e co. From these parameters, we calculate the total nonthermal energy E nt in electrons with two different methods: (1) using the observed cross-over energy e co as low-energy cutoff, and (2) using the low-energy cutoff e wt predicted by the warm thick-target bremsstrahlung model of Kontar et al. Based on a mean temperature of T e = 8.6 MK in active regions, we find low-energy cutoff energies of {e}{wt}=6.2+/- 1.6 {keV} for the warm-target model, which is significantly lower than the cross-over energies {e}{co}=21+/- 6 {keV}. Comparing with the statistics of magnetically dissipated energies E mag and thermal energies E th from the two previous studies, we find the following mean (logarithmic) energy ratios with the warm-target model: {E}{nt}=0.41 {E}{mag}, {E}{th}=0.08 {E}{mag}, and {E}{th}=0.15 {E}{nt}. The total dissipated magnetic energy exceeds the thermal energy in 95% and the nonthermal energy in 71% of the flare events, which confirms that magnetic reconnection processes are sufficient to explain flare energies. The nonthermal energy exceeds the thermal energy in 85% of the events, which largely confirms the warm thick-target model.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- November 2016
- DOI:
- 10.3847/0004-637X/832/1/27
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1607.06488
- Bibcode:
- 2016ApJ...832...27A
- Keywords:
-
- radiation mechanisms: nonthermal;
- Sun: flares;
- Sun: particle emission;
- Sun: X-rays;
- gamma rays;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 34p, 9 Figs., 1 Table