EGU21-10734
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-10734
EGU General Assembly 2021
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Solar Energetic Electron Events Associated with Hard X-ray Flares 

Wen Wang1, Linghua Wang1, Sam Krucker3, Glenn M. Mason4, Yang Su6, and Radoslav Bucik7
Wen Wang et al.
  • 1School of Earth and Space Science, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China
  • 3Institute of 4D Technologies, University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland, 5210 Windisch, Switzerland
  • 4Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, MD 20723 USA
  • 6School of Astronomy and Space Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China
  • 7Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX 78238, USA

We investigate 16 solar energetic electron (SEE) events measured by WIND/3DP with a double power-law spectrum and the associated western hard X-ray (HXR) flares measured by RHESSI with good count statistics, from 2002 February to 2016 December. In all 16 cases, the presence of an SEE power-law spectrum extending down to 65 keV at 1 AU implies that the SEE source would be high in the corona, at a heliocentric distance of >1.3 solar radii, while the footpoint or footpoint-like emissions shown in HXR images suggest that the observed HXRs are likely produced mainly by thick target bremsstrahlung processes very low in the corona. We find that in 8 cases (the other 8 cases), the power-law spectral index of HXR-producing electrons, estimated under the relativistic thick-target bremsstrahlung model, is significantly larger than (similar to) the observed high-energy spectral index of SEEs, with a positive correlation. In addition, the estimated number of SEEs is only 10-4 - 10-2 of the estimated number of HXRproducing electrons at energies above 30 keV, but also with a positive correlation. These results suggest that in these cases, SEEs are likely formed by upward-traveling electrons from an acceleration source high in the corona, while their downward-traveling counterparts may undergo a secondary acceleration before producing HXRs via thick-target bremsstrahlung processes. In addition, the associated 3He=4He ratio is positively correlated with the observed high-energy spectral index of SEEs, indicating a possible relation of the 3He ion acceleration with high-energy SEEs

How to cite: Wang, W., Wang, L., Krucker, S., Mason, G. M., Su, Y., and Bucik, R.: Solar Energetic Electron Events Associated with Hard X-ray Flares , EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-10734, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-10734, 2021.

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