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Variation of the Observed Coronal Calcium Abundance for Various X-Ray Flare Plasmas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

J. Sylwester
Affiliation:
Space Research Center Polish Academy Of Sciences
J.R. Lemen
Affiliation:
Mullard Space Science Laboratory
R. Mewe
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Space Research, Utrecht

Extract

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We present the first observational evidence for the variation of the coronal calcium abundance in the high-temperature solar flare plasmas. The analyzed data consists of the X-ray flare spectra observed by the Solar Maximum Mission satellite with the Bent Crystal Spectrometer. From BCS spectra we derived the ratio of the line to continuum flux IL/IC for the resonance line of Ca XIX λ = 3.1781Å and the continuum at the same wavelength as a function of the temperature. The studies of 13 flares showed similar temperature dependence during the decay phases, but the agreement of the IL/IC ratio from flare to flare could only be achieved by adjusting an overall normalization factor. As the continuum flux depends weakly on the heavy elemental abundance, this variation of the IL/IC ratio can be attributed to the variation in the calcium abundance. For the flares considered, the variation between the extreme cases represented the factor of 2.5. We stress the consequences of the observed abundance variation for the analysis and interpretation of XUV and X-ray spectra.

Type
Session 1. Solar Astrophysics
Copyright
Copyright © Naval Research Laboratory 1984. Publication courtesy of the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC.