Coronal hard X-ray sources

3.2 Coronal hard X-ray sources

In the standard flare scenario, where the flare energy is released in the corona and non-thermal particles are accelerated in the corona, coronal X-ray emission showing a power-law photon energy distribution must attract special attention. It is generally assumed that its emission is near or in the acceleration region. This section thus concentrates on flare related X-ray emissions from well above the chromospheric footpoints.

The ordinary corona has a density that is not suggestive of hard X-ray emission. However, such radiation was discovered as soon as it became technically feasible. Frost and Dennis (1971 ) reported an extremely energetic event from active region behind the limb. Its origin must have been at an altitude of about 45,000 km above the photosphere. The presence of non-thermal electrons in coronal sources has been inferred by the first observers based on the high energy of the detected photons, exceeding 200 keV. Coronal hard X-ray observations have been studied essentially event-by-event beyond the limb (e.g., Kane, 1983 ) until it became possible to image hard X-rays thanks to the RHESSI satellite (Lin et al., 2002 ). Krucker et al. (2007 ) have reviewed the RHESSI results concerning the coronal X-ray sources of flares.

Occasional emission of bremsstrahlung photons by non-thermal electrons in the corona may not be surprising, the observed intensity is. It is so high because of a high density of the background plasma. Estimates of the loop-top density from soft X-rays and EUV lines are typically around 10¹⁰ and can reach up to a few times 10¹² cm^–3 (Tsuneta et al., 1997 ; Feldman et al., 1994 ; Veronig and Brown, 2004 ; Liu et al., 2006 ; Battaglia and Benz, 2006 ). The reported temperatures are several ten millions of degree (Lin et al., 1981 ). The pressure balance of such structures is enigmatic. What is the origin of this thermal loop-top source?

Thermal loop-top sources have first been interpreted in terms of chromospheric evaporation. Thus one may expect them to follow the Neupert behavior where the soft X-rays are proportional to the hard X-ray flux integrated over prehistory. It is then incomprehensible that thermal coronal sources appear before the start of the hard X-ray emission. In fact, the most prominent feature in the preflare phase is the early appearance of a thermal source at the loop-top. The material content (emission measure) in these sources greatly exceeds the normal value in the active region corona. Thus is must have evaporated from the chromosphere. One may speculate that in this early phase the flare energy is not transported by energetic particles, but more gently conducted by thermal particles.

A characteristic of the thermal source is the temperature distribution with loop height. The highest looptops sometimes show Fe xxi emission, suggesting a temperature of 20 MK, while at the same time lower laying loops show emission in the Fe xi and Fe xii lines characteristic for temperatures between 1 – 3 MK (Warren et al., 1999 ). The thermal emission must not be confused with the thermal X-ray emission from giant arches observed in the post-flare phase (Svestka, 1984 ).

Masuda et al. (1994 ) have reported hard X-ray emission from above the thermal X-ray loop. Historically, this has raised great interest as it seemed to confirm the scenario of reconnection in a current sheet in a vertical cusp-shaped structure above the soft X-ray loops. However, this seems to be rather exceptional. In more recent studies, the large majority of non-thermal sources are cospatial with the thermal source (Battaglia and Benz, 2007 ). Stereoscopic observations by two spacecraft (Kane, 1983 ) and recent RHESSI observations find that the non-thermal emission from the corona and the footpoints correlated in time. Even the soft-hard-soft behavior (Section 5.2) has been detected in the coronal source (Battaglia and Benz, 2007 ). The coronal hard X-ray emission is not always stationary. Upward motions have been reported with velocities of about 1000 km s^–1 following the direction of a preceding CME (Hudson et al., 2001 ).

The coronal source has been observed to emit hard X-rays even in the pre-flare phase before footpoints appear. Even more astonishingly, non-thermal emission at centimeter wavelengths, suggesting the presence of relativistic electrons, has been reported in such sources (Asai et al., 2006 ).