Effect of asymmetry on a trap model for solar hard X-ray bursts

Apparently the first suggestion of asymmetry in coronal loops supporting footpoint hard X-ray emission. This is a minor tweak of the Melrose-Brown "trap plus precipitation" model, much used as a reference point for interpreting hard X-ray and microwave sources in solar flares. Foot 2 has a bigger area than Foot 1, implying a weaker magnetic field, implying a deeper mirror point, implying more intense hard X-ray emission. Note that the black-box acceleration region here has morphed into a kidney-shaped object. The Li cartoon deals with this "cornucopia" effect more recently.

      This entry was taken from an rather small journal, the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia which - though small - deserves recognition for all of the solar radiophysics it has reported on. It may also have become one of the first online-only journals in our trade, now a common thing as styles change. Maybe we are heading back to that happy time in which we could find really interesting papers in relatively obscure journals - one of the Archivist's early favorites was the Boletín de los Observatorios Tonantzintla y Tacubaya (1952-1972).