Gamma radiation and photospheric white-light flare continuum |
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| Authors: | H S Hudson B N Dwivedi |
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| Institution: | 1. Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, University of California, San Diego, Calif., USA
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| Abstract: | Recent gamma-ray observations of solar flares have provided a better means for estimating the heating of the solar atmosphere by energetic protons. Such heating has been suggested as the explanation of the continuum emission of the white-light flare. We have analyzed the effects on the photosphere of high-energy particles capable of producing the intense gamma-ray emission observed in the 1978 July 11 flare. Using a simple energy-balance argument and taking into account hydrogen ionization, we have obtained the following conclusions: - Heating near τ5000 = 1 in the input HSRA model atmosphere is negligible, even for very high fluxes of energetic particles.
- Energy deposition increases with height for the inferred proton spectra, and does not depend strongly upon the assumed angle of incidence. The computed energy inputs fall in the range 10–100 ergs (cm3 s)?1 at the top of the photosphere.
- H? continuum dominates for column densities as small as 1022 cm?3, but at greater heights hydrogen ionizes sufficiently for the higher continua to dominate the energy balance.
- The total energy deposited in the ‘photospheric’ region of H? dominance could be within a factor of 3 of the necessary energy deposition, by comparison with the white-light flare of 1972 August 7, but the emergent spectrum is quite red so that the intensity excess in the visible band is insufficient to explain the observations.
In summary, it remains energetically possible, within observational limits, that high-energy protons could cause sufficient heating of the upper photosphere to produce detectable excess continuum, but emission from the vicinity of τ = 1 is not significant. |
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