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The 1991 March 22 flare: Possible anisotropy of high-energy neutral emission

Kocharov, L. G. and Lee, Jeongwoo W. and Wang, H. and Zirin, H. and Kovaltsov, G. A. and Usoskin, I. G. (1995) The 1991 March 22 flare: Possible anisotropy of high-energy neutral emission. Solar Physics, 158 (1). pp. 95-114. ISSN 0038-0938. doi:10.1007/bf00680837. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20200519-094740270

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Abstract

We made a parameter fit to the Haleakala neutron monitor counting rate during the 1991 March 22 solar flare (Pyle and Simpson, 1991) using the time profiles of γ-rays at 0.42–80 MeV obtained with the GRANAT satellite (Vilmeret al., 1994) and the microwave data from Owens Valley Radio Observatory. We use a two-component neutron injection function to find that either an impulsive injection or the ‘impulsive-plus-prolonged’ neutron injection is possible. In both cases, the number of > 300 MeV neutrons emitted towards the Earth is estimated as ≈ 2 × 10²⁷ sr⁻¹, which is less than that of the 1990 May 24 flare by an order of magnitude. We tested if such a big difference in neutron number detected on the Earth can be accounted for solely by their different positions on the solar disk. For the estimation of the degree of anisotropy of high-energy secondary emission, we made use of macroscopic parameters of the flare active region, in particular, the vector magnetogram data from the Big Bear Solar Observatory. In our result, the anisotropy factor for the neutral emissions of the 1991 March 22 flare is only ≈ 1 – 10, which is rather small compared with previous theoretical predictions for a disk flare. Such a moderate anisotropy is due to the relatively large inclination angles of the magnetic fields at the footpoints of the flaring loop where accelerated particles are trapped. We thus concluded that the smaller number of neutrons of the 1991 March 22 flare would be not only due to its location on the disk, but also due to fewer protons accelerated during this event as compared with the 1990 May 24 limb event. For a more precise determination of the anisotropy factor in a flare, we need a detailed spectrum of electron bremsstrahlung in 0.1 – 10 MeV and the fluence of γ-ray emission from the π⁰-decay.


Item Type:Article
Related URLs:
URLURL TypeDescription
https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00680837DOIArticle
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1995SoPh..158...95K/abstractADSArticle
ORCID:
AuthorORCID
Wang, H.0000-0002-5233-565X
Additional Information:© 1995 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System. Received 17 August, 1994; in revised form 3 January, 1995. Observations at BBSO have been funded by NASA grant NAGW-1972 and observations at OVRO by NSF grants ATM-9311416 and AST-9314929 to the California Institute of Technology. One of us (LGK) has been supported by NSF grant ATM-9122023 during his visit to BBSO.
Funders:
Funding AgencyGrant Number
NASANAGW-1972
NSFATM-9311416
NSFAST-9314929
NSFATM-9122023
Issue or Number:1
DOI:10.1007/bf00680837
Record Number:CaltechAUTHORS:20200519-094740270
Persistent URL:https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20200519-094740270
Official Citation:Kocharov, L.G., Lee, J.W., Wang, H. et al. The 1991 March 22 flare: Possible anisotropy of high-energy neutral emission. Sol Phys 158, 95–114 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00680837
Usage Policy:No commercial reproduction, distribution, display or performance rights in this work are provided.
ID Code:103306
Collection:CaltechAUTHORS
Deposited By: Tony Diaz
Deposited On:19 May 2020 16:55
Last Modified:16 Nov 2021 18:20

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