Direct electric field heating and acceleration of electrons in solar flares

Abstract

We show that the observed properties of solar flare X‐ray and microwave emission can be explained through the Joule heating and electric field acceleration of runaway electrons in current channels. The global properties of the flaring region required for this are presented. We have fit a hydrid thermal/nonthermal electron distribution, consisting of hot, isothermal electrons with a nonthermal tail of runaway electrons, to high‐resolution hard X‐ray and microwave spectra and have obtained excellent fits to both. The hybrid model relaxes the electron number and energy flux requirements for the hard X‐ray emission over those of a purely nonthermal model. The model also provides explanations for several previously unexplained aspects of the high‐resolution microwave spectra. The fit parameters can be related to physical properties (such as the electric field strength in the current channels) of the acceleration region.