Observation of an impulsive solar X-ray burst from a coronal source

Abstract

Observations of the spatial, spectral, and temporal structure of an impulsive hard X-ray source in a behind-the-limb solar flare have been made with high-time-resolution hard X-ray detectors aboard two spacecraft, the International Sun Earth Explorer 3 (ISEE 3) and the Pioneer Venus Orbiter (PVO), which were separated in heliographic longitude by about 12.5 deg. The principal findings are that (1) the coronal part of the X-ray source is about 600 times less intense than the lower-altitude part of the source; and (2) the coronal X-ray observations are consistent with a power-law electron spectrum which extends down to about 5 keV.