RHESSI Deep Integrations

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RHESSI Deep Integrations
Number: 111
1st Author: Pascal Saint-Hilaire
2nd Author:
Published: 28 September 2009
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Introduction

Every individual X-ray photon detected by RHESSI gets its own unique telemetry allocation. This makes great flexibility possible, in principle, since the "observer" can pick and choose how to integrate these photon counts into images and spectra. Earlier Nuggets([1] and [2]) explained this, but we describe here one of the first applications of this capability for really deep integrations of faint sources: the detection of a very long-lived coronal X-ray sources associated with a CME.

Current Sheets in the Middle Corona

A coronal mass ejection has the result of expanding a part of the coronal magnetic field; indeed the structure becomes so large that it passes the [critical point] and enters the [solar wind] itself. This requires a great deal of energy, but essentially every X-class solar flare is accompanied by a CME. In the aftermath of a CME, the solar wind finds itself with too much magnetic flux, and to return to its steady state it needs to create shorter magnetic connections from the newly "opened" field. This requires [magnetic reconnection] and the likely formation of a [current sheet] where the reconnection takes place. This would be a linear structure extending essentially radially outward from the flare. All of this is well worked out conceptually, and supported by much observational work; indeed the current sheets themselves may be detectable via UV line emissions in high-temperature lines.

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