Solar cycle variation of long duration 10.7 cm and soft X-ray bursts

Abstract

Gradual rise-and-fall (GRF) microwave bursts and long duration soft X-ray events (LDEs) are generally accompanied by solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs). We use reports from the Ottawa and Penticton stations to examine the annual variations from 1965 to 1985 of 10.7 cm GRF bursts with total durations of at least 4 hr. The annual numbers of such bursts are well correlated with the quiet-Sun 10.7 cm flux densities. This result is in contrast with the finding of Koomen et al. (1985) that the annual numbers of ≥ 4 hr GOES soft X-ray events are not well correlated with sunspot numbers. We show that the latter result is biased by the large variation of the quiet-Sun X-ray background throughout the solar cycle. Four-hour events are more easily detected in X-ray data than in 10.7 cm data at solar minimum, but, conversely, these events are much more easily detected in 10.7 cm data around solar maximum. About 70% of the most energetic CMEs are associated with ≥ 4 hr X-ray or 10.7 cm bursts. A one-to-one relationship does not exist between CMEs and either LDEs or GRF bursts viewed in full-Sun detectors.