2 ACCELERATED ELECTRON POPULATIONS IN THE 1980 JUNE 27 SOLAR-FLARE

We invert high spectral resolution hard X-ray observations of the 1980 June 27 solar flare to obtain the parent X-ray-producing electron population. Assuming that collisions are the dominant loss mechanism, the accelerated electron population is derived as a function of time through the flare, using a continuity equation. We find that there appear to be two separate components in the accelerated electrons: an impulsive component with a spectrum peaked at approximately 50 keV, and a slowly varying component with a power-law spectrum extending down to approximately 20 keV. The peaked spectra are highly suggestive of acceleration by quasi-static DC electric fields parallel to the magnetic field, similar to that observed for Earth's aurora. The slowly varying component, however, dominates the total energy contained in accelerated electrons. With these high spectral resolution measurements and this analysis technique, accurate numbers are obtained for the first time for the total energy in accelerated electrons. We find that approximately 1.4 x 10(30) ergs must be contained in greater-than-or-equal-to 33 keV accelerated electrons for an ionized ambient medium. This is a significant fraction of the total energy released in the flare.