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H. Warren (NRL)
The observation that in many flares there is a good correlation between the soft X-ray emission and the time-integrated non-thermal emission --- the Neupert effect --- indicates a strong link between magnetic reconnection and particle acceleration. We present hydrodynamic simulations of flare loops heated by precipitating energetic electrons. Instead of representing a flare as a single loop, we model it as a succession of independently heated, small-scale filaments. We find that to reproduce the observed thermal emission the energy in the injected electrons must be proportional to the soft X-ray flux, not the derivative of the soft X-ray flux as suggested by the Neupert effect. Comparisons between the simulations and GOES and RHESSI observations indicates that there is not sufficient energy in the non-thermal electrons to account for the thermal emission observed in a large, long duration flare. This suggests that there must be in situ heating of coronal plasma as well as particle acceleration during magnetic reconnection.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 #2
© YEAR. The American Astronomical Soceity.