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Thomas R. Metcalf, David Alexander, Hugh S. Hudson and Dana W. Longcope
the Astrophysical Journal, in press
We present observations of a large solar white light flare observed on 2001 Aug 25 using data from the the TRACE white light channel and Yohkoh/HXT. These emissions are consistent with the classic Type I white light flare mechanism and we find that the enhanced white light emission observed by TRACE originates in the chromosphere and temperature minimum regions via non-equilibrium hydrogen ionization induced by direct collisions with the electron beam and by backwarming of the lower atmosphere. The three flare kernels observed in hard X-rays and white light are spatially associated with magnetic separatrices and one of the kernels is observed to move along a magnetic separatrix at 400 km s-1. This is evidence in favor of particle acceleration models which energize the electrons via magnetic reconnection at magnetic separators.
Subject Headings: Sun: chromosphere -- Sun: flares -- Sun: X-rays