SOLAR FLARE OPTICAL, NEUTRON AND GAMMA-RAY EMISSION

It has previously been suggested that the energy for the optical emission of solar flares was provided by ionization losses of accelerated particles in the flares. We show that nuclear interaction of these particles would also produce fluxes of secondary neutrons and gamma rays detectable at the earth. A comparison of the expected intensities of these secondaries with the present upper limit intensities during solar flares shows that such an origin from the optical emission energy is consistent with the measured limits. © 1969 D. Reidel Publishing Company.