Few phenomena have stirred the imaginations of solar scientists as much as the explosive energy of solar flares. In The Physics of Solar Flares, first published in 1988, Einar Tandberg-Hanssen and A. Gordon Emslie approach this subject by drawing heavily on experimental data from the Solar Maximum Mission, as well as other ground-based and space-borne instruments. The data are incorporated into many theoretical investigations. The authors put the main emphasis on understanding the underlying physical processes. Starting from the language of physics, the authors guide the reader into the more...

This edited volume describes many aspects of current research on solar flares, emphasizing recent progress in understanding their X-ray and gamma-ray emissions. Several of the chapters deal comprehensively with the problems of particle acceleration, conversion of particle energy into various forms of radiation, and the inference of physical processes from observations. Other chapters deal with the full breadth and richness of flare observations, including microflares and nanoflares.

This volume is aimed at graduate students and researchers in solar physics and space science....

The idea for this text emerged over several years as the authors participated in research projects related to analysis of data from NASA's RHESSI Small Explorer mission. The data produced over the operational lifetime of this mission inspired many investigations related to a specific science question: the when, where, and how of electron acceleration during solar flares in the stressed magnetic environment of the active Sun.A vital key to unlocking this science problem is the ability to produce high-quality images of hard X-rays produced by bremsstrahlung radiation from electrons accelerated...