A Statistical Study of Limb Flares Observed by RHESSI: Imaging
Liu, W.; Jiang, Y. W.; Petrosian, V
Department of Physics, Stanford University,
Stanford, CA 94305-4060
Metcalf, T. R.
Hard X-ray observations by the Reuven Ramaty High Energy
Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) (Lin, et al. 2002) provide unprecedented
opportunities to understand the underlying physics driving
solar flares. We have embarked on an investigation of a
sample of limb flares observed by RHESSI. RHESSI flare
images are used to infer flaring loop
structures and to distinguish between footpoint, looptop
and other possible types of sources. We present an analysis
of the lightcurves and images for these features and show
statistics on the occurrence of looptop and footpoint
sources. These are compared with previous studies
utilizing YOHKOH/HXT observations, and their implications
for particle acceleration processes and other theoretical
aspects of flares are discussed.
LMSAL, Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory,
Palo Alto, CA 94304
Abstract: