A comparison of the height distributions of solar flare hard X-rays in thick target and thermal models

Abstract

The height structure of hard X-ray bremsstrahlung emission in solar flares is computed for two different models of bremsstrahlung production: emission from a descending beam of nonthermal electrons, and thermal emission from a coronally confined hot plasma. It is shown how these models give rise to hard X-ray spatial distributions which are distinguishable by current instrumentation, and that, therefore, the models may be distinguished by such spatially resolved hard X-ray measurements