Electron Temperature, Emission Measure, and X-Ray Flux in A2 to X2 X-Ray Class Solar Flares

Abstract

In this paper we present a statistical analysis of soft X-ray flare class and emission measure as a function of electron temperature determined for the time of maximum flare X-ray flux. The study includes 868 flares of X-ray class A2 to X2. Our work shows that their properties are very different, although large and small flares as seen by the 1-8 Å detector aboard the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) records have similar appearances. The peak temperature of intense (major) flares is much higher than the peak temperature of weak (minor) flares. This finding has important implications on the nature of the flare-heating mechanism. For example, if a flare is a collection of elementary bursts, the plasma properties of the elementary-bursts occurring during peak emission of large flares and small flares must be different. <P />Using the relationship between electron temperature and emission measure in solar flares, we provide an estimate of the electron temperature during the peak emission of large stellar flares.