Exploring Solar Flares with Gamma Rays and Neutrons

Abstract

Gamma-ray and neutron emissions from solar flares carry information about the flaring process and conditions within the flaring magnetic loop. Extraction of this information from solar flare measurements requires an ion-acceleration, transport, and interaction model with parameters directly related to those physical processes. In this paper we describe such a magnetic-loop model. Each of the gamma-ray and neutron measurable quantities depends to varying degree on the parameters of the model. We describe these dependences and construct a self-consistent approach to the analysis of high-energy flare data that provides an optimum set of parameters. To illustrate this approach, we summarize the analysis of gamma-ray and neutron data obtained from the 1991 June 4 solar flare with the Oriented Scintillation Spectrometer Experiment (OSSE), a satellite-based instrument developed at NRL.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2008
Accession Number
ADA517467

Entities

People

  • Robert Murphy

Organizations

  • United States Naval Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Atmospheres
  • Doppler Effect
  • Electrons
  • Gamma Rays
  • Measurement
  • Neutron Capture
  • Nuclear Reactions
  • Radiation
  • Scattering
  • Solar Activity
  • Solar Atmosphere
  • Solar Flares
  • Spectra
  • Spectroscopy
  • Sun
  • Waves
  • X Rays

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Solar Physics

Technology Areas

  • Space