J/ApJS/120/409 The SMM Atlas of Gamma-Ray flares (Vestrand+, 1999) ================================================================================ The Solar Maximum Mission Atlas of Gamma-Ray Flares Vestrand W. T., Share G. H., Murphy R. J., Forrest D. J., Rieger E., Chupp E. L., Kanbach G. =1999ApJS..120..409V ================================================================================ ADC_Keywords: Atlases; Gamma rays; Solar system Mission_Name: SMM Keywords: catalogs - gamma rays: bursts - Sun: flares Abstract: We present a compilation of data for all 258 gamma-ray flares detected above 300 keV by the Gamma Ray Spectrometer (GRS) aboard the Solar Maximum Mission satellite. This gamma-ray flare sample was collected during the period from 1980 February to 1989 November; covering the latter half of the 21st solar sunspot cycle and the onset of the 22d solar sunspot cycle. We describe the SMM/GRS instrument, its in-orbit operation, and the principal data reduction methods used to derive the gamma-ray flare properties. Utilizing measurements for 185 flares that were sufficiently intense to allow the derivation of gamma-ray spectra, we present an atlas of time profiles and gamma-ray spectra. The flare parameters derived from the gamma-ray spectra include bremsstrahlung fluence and best-fit power-law parameters, narrow nuclear line fluence, positron annihilation line fluence, neutron capture line fluence, and an indication of whether or not emissions greater than 10 MeV were present. Since a uniform methodology was adopted for deriving the parameters, this atlas should be very useful for future statistical and correlative studies of solar flares. File Summary: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FileName Lrecl Records Explanations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ReadMe 80 . This file table1.dat 134 258 Compilation of data for gamma-ray flares -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Byte-by-byte Description of file: table1.dat -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bytes Format Units Label Explanations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1- 4 I4 yr Flare.Y Date of gamma-ray flare occurrence (year) 6- 8 A3 "month" Flare.M Date of gamma-ray flare occurrence (month) 10- 11 I2 d Flare.D Date of gamma-ray flare occurrence (day) 13- 14 I2 h Flare.h Date of gamma-ray flare occurrence (hour) 15 A1 --- --- [:] 16- 17 I2 min Flare.m Date of gamma-ray flare occurrence (minute) 18 A1 --- --- [:] 19- 20 I2 s Flare.s Date of gamma-ray flare occurrence (second) 22- 25 I4 s Durat ? Flare Duration 27- 32 A6 --- Pos Position of associated H{alpha} flare 34- 40 A7 --- Prop Properties (1) 42- 44 I3 deg Vangle ? Heliocentric viewing angle for the flare 46- 50 F5.2 cm-2.s-1 Amp ? Amplitude of bremstahlung power-law measured at 0.3 MeV (photons.cm-2.s-1) 53- 56 F4.2 cm-2.s-1 e_Amp ? errors of the Amplitude 59- 64 F6.2 --- Index ? Index of the best fit power-law 67- 71 F5.2 --- e_Index ? errors of the index 73- 79 F7.1 cm-2 Tbrem ? Total bremsstrahlung fluence between 0.3-8.5 MeV (photons.cm-2) 81- 85 F5.1 cm-2 e_Tbrem ? errors of the bremsstrahlung fluence 87- 92 F6.1 cm-2 Tnuc ? Total narrow nuclear line fluence (photons.cm-2) (2) 94- 98 F5.1 cm-2 e_Tnuc ? errors of the nuclear fluence 100-104 F5.1 cm-2.s-1 Posit ? Fluence of the 0.511 MeV line (photons.cm-2.s-1) (3) 106-110 F5.1 cm-2.s-1 e_Posit ? errors of the positron fluence 112-117 F6.1 cm-2 Ncap ? Fluence of the 2.23 MeV line (photons.cm-2.s-1) (4) 119-123 F5.1 cm-2 e_Ncap ? errors in the 2.23 MeV line 125-135 A11 --- Code Event code (5) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note (1): GOES X-ray class and H{alpha} properties as reported in the NOAA Solar-Geophysical Data reports Note (2): Employing a template derived from observations of the 1981 April 27 flare Note (3): Value is based on the best fit of a single Gaussian line with a width fixed at the instrumental energy resolution and centered at 511 keV. The values listed here were derived by fitting over the restricted 0.30.75 MeV energy band. Note (4): The value is based on the best fit of a single Gaussian line centered at 2.223 MeV that has a width fixed at the norminal energy resolution for that energy. The delayed nature of this emission means the fluence will be underestimated for events that are truncated by Earth occultation or missing data Note (5): 1 = events that are missing late data 2 = events that are missing early data 3 = events that were detected at energies greater than 10 MeV 4 = an event where narrow nuclear line fluence is better estimated by the sum, given in Table 2, of individual line fits instead of the standard template (see Murphy & Share, 1995ApJ...452..933S) 5 = events that are missing data due to detector saturation 6 = events that are missing data in the middle of the event -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- History: From ApJ electronic edition ================================================================================ (End) Greg Schwarz (AAS) 26-Jan-2000