A cartoon aiming at explaining one of the rare coronal hard X-ray events, ie one with a soft-hard-harder spectral morphology as opposed to the much more common soft-hard-soft morphology. Thanks to imaging and radio observations since TD-1A flew (yes, there was a solar observatory in space by that name, but not a TD-2A nor a TD-1B!), we have learned a great deal about such events, but it is still quite rewarding to read a paper such as this - it anticipated twanging loops, for example, one of the current hot subjects in TRACE observations. Also it didn't make the usual mindless appeal to magnetic reconnection as an explanation, although certainly at a higher level of thinking one imagines it happening. As of the date of this note, we can also point out that this paper also anticipated the "collapsing trap" physics, for which there are several current papers.
July 11, 2006
March 12, 2008