Ions In Solar Flares Research Articles

Simultaneous acceleration of electrons and ions in solar flares

Two very intense and impulsive nuclear γ-ray and electron bremsstrahlung X-ray emitting solar flares, on 7 and 21 June 1980, were observed with 40 keV and γ-ray emission show that electrons and ions were accelerated within seconds of each other. The near simultaneous peaking, together with the observation of >400-MeV neutrons, show that the solar flare acceleration process can produce the full intensity and spectrum of electrons (>1 MeV) and ions (>102 MeV) in a time scale of <5 s. These results are in direct contradiction to the widely accepted concept of solar flare particle acceleration.