COMPTEL Image Sequence of Long-duration Solar-flare emission

One of the major discoveries of the Compton Observatory is a new class of solar flare with long-duration, high-energy gamma-ray emission. This image shows the decay of 0.8 to 8 MeV gamma radiation from nuclear line emission, recorded by COMPTEL for the solar flare of 15 June 1991. During the onset of this flare the CGRO was on the dark, "night" side of the Earth, and it was not until 40 minutes after the impulsive phase of this event that COMPTEL was able to collect its first data. Yet, this sequence of images demonstrates that MeV gamma radiation persisted for over an hour after the onset of the flare, implying that energetic particles continued to interact at the flare site long after the impulsive phase had passed.

An image of the Sun obtained in solar neutrons has also been produced from COMPTEL data recorded for the flare of 15 June 1991.

For further information, see

"An Overview of Solar Flare Results from COMPTEL" (McConnell et al., 1994, in High-energy Solar Phenomena (AIP Conf. Proc. 294), eds. J.M. Ryan, W.T. Vestrand (New York:AIP), 21).

"High-energy Particles in Solar Flares" (Hudson and Ryan, 1995, ARAAS, 33, 239).

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