Electrons > 40 ke V and protons > 500 ke V of solar origin

Abstract

Following many solar flares, electrons with kinetic energy > 40 keV appear in interplanetary space. There are two classes of such electrons: prompt electrons which arrive within an hour of the flare and delayed electrons which arrive about a day following the flare. The promptly arriving electrons are found to be of two types: Simple (S) events are associated with solar flares which occur in the absence of large area Type I radio noise storm and the complex (C) events resulting from flares beneath these large radio noise regions. The propagation of energetic solar flare electrons to the earth is best described in terms of cones of propagation. In the S-events the cones have about 30° opening angle whereas in the C-type events the cones open to about 90° full angle. Outside the boundaries of these cones the electron flux is much reduced. Within the cones there is a net streaming of the electrons away from the sun. Solar flare electron fluxes do not show filamentary structure even at times when protons from the same flare do. This suggests that the electrons are injected into the interplanetary field from regions distinct from the proton injection region. The delayed solar electron events are accompanied by large fluxes of protons > 500 keV. These events are sometimes closely related to a sudden commencement.