HR: 0830h
AN: SP21A-01    [Abstracts]
TI: Energetics of RHESSI X-Class Flares
AU: * Dennis, B R
EM: Brian.R.Dennis@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Solar Physics Branch, Code 612.1, Greenbelt, MD 20771-0001 United States
AU: Holman, G D
EM: Gordon.D.Holman@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Solar Physics Branch, Code 612.1, Greenbelt, MD 20771-0001 United States
AU: Haga, L
EM: lhaga@lasp680.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and The Catholic University of America, Solar Physics Branch, Code 612.1, Greenbelt, MD 20771-0001 United States
AU: Hudson, H S
EM: hhudson@ssl.berkeley.edu
AF: Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 United States
AB: The thermal and nonthermal energies of several X-class flares seen with the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) will be presented. The same techniques described by Emslie et al. (JGR, 109, A10104, 2004) are used to take the RHESSI imaging spectroscopic observations and compute the energies in the thermal plasma and in the nonthermal electrons as a function of time throughout the flares. Radiative and conductive cooling rates are estimated and total thermal and nonthermal energies are computed for each flare. Typically, the energy in nonthermal electrons integrated up to the time of peak soft X-ray emission is equal to or exceeds the energy in the thermal plasma at that time. This suggests that energy must have been converted into a form not visible with RHESSI and that the total energy released by the flares may be significantly greater than the sum of energies calculated from the RHESSI observations alone. This conclusion is supported by the high radiative energy seen with SORCE during the impulsive phase of the 28 October 2003 flare. The peak increase in total solar irradiance of 270 mW m^-2 measured with SORCE was over two orders of magnitude higher than the peak soft X-ray flux seen with GOES or RHESSI. The implications of this new observation as compared to the energetics derived from the X-ray observations of that flare will be discussed along with the energetics analysis of most of the other X-class flares in October/November 2003.
DE: 7514 Energetic particles (2114)
DE: 7519 Flares
DE: 7538 Solar irradiance
DE: 7554 X rays, gamma rays, and neutrinos
SC: Solar Physics Division - AAS [SP]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly