Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 1982. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 136-139).

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references. / Microfiche. / xii, 158 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

Thesis (PhD)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2009. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Petrus Martens. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 160-170).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2007. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Richard Canfield. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 83-88).

The topic of this thesis is a detailed investigation of different aspects of the particle acceleration mechanisms operating in Collapsing Magnetic Traps (CMTs), which have been suggested as one possible mechanism for particle acceleration during solar flares. The acceleration processes in CMTs are investigated using guiding centre test particle calculations. Results including terms of different orders in the guiding centre approximation are compared to help identify which of the terms are important for the acceleration of particles. For a basic 2D CMT model the effects of different initial conditions (position, kinetic energy and pitch angle) of particles are investigated in detail. The main result is that the particles that gain most energy are those with initial pitch angles close to 90° and start in weak field regions in the centre of the CMT. The dominant acceleration mechanism for these particles is betatron acceleration, but other particles also show signatures of Fermi acceleration. The basic CMT model is then extended by (a) including a magnetic field component in the invariant direction and (b) by making it asymmetric. It is found that the addition of a guide field does not change the characteristics of particle acceleration very much, but for the asymmetric models the associated energy gain is found to be much smaller than in symmetric models, because the particles can no longer remain very close to the trap centre throughout their orbit. The test particle method is then also applied to a CMT model from the literature which contains a magnetic X-line and open and closed field lines and the results are compared with the previous results and the findings in the literature. Finally, the theoretical framework of CMT models is extended to 2.5D models with shear flow and to fully 3D models, allowing the construction of more realistic CMT models in the future.

The results of a statistical study of hard x-ray solar flares are presented in this dissertation. Two methods of analysis were used, the Diffusion Entropy (DE) method coupled with an analysis of the data distributions and the Rescaled Range (R/S) Method, sometimes referred to as "Hurst's method". Chapter one provides an introduction to hard x-ray flares within the context of the solar environment and a summary of the statistical paradigms solar astronomers currently work under. Chapter two presents the theory behind the DE and R/S methods. Chapter three presents the results of the two analysis methodologies: most notably important evidence of the conflicting results of the R/S and DE methods, evidence of a Levy statistical signature for the underlying dynamics of the hard x-ray flaring process and a possible separate memory signature for the waiting times. In addition, the stationary and nonstationary characteristics of the waiting times and peak intensities, are revealed. Chapter four provides a concise summary and discussion of the results.

In this paper we analyze the small C1.5 class solar flare observed on June 30th 2013 by the Swedish Solar Telescope. The evolution of asym- metries in the Hα line profile of the solar flare was studied where it could be seen how the number of red asymmetric regions had a maximum value near the beginning of the flare and then decreases rapidly in the first 4 minutes of the observations. This could be interpreted as a correlation with the HXR and microwave emissions of the impulsive phase of the flare as these emissions also typically have a similar rapid increase and decrease of emission intensity.

Collapsing magnetic traps (CMTs) have been suggested as one of the mechanisms that could contribute to particle energisation in solar flares. The basic idea behind CMTs is that charged particles will be trapped on the magnetic field lines below the reconnection region of a flare. This thesis discusses a number of important new aspects in particle energisation processes in CMTs, based on the model by Giuliani et al. (2005). In particular, we extend previous studies of particle acceleration in this CMT model to the relativistic regime and compare our results obtained using relativistic guiding centre theory with results obtained using the non-relativistic guiding centre theory. The similarities and differences found are discussed. We then present a detailed study of the question, what leads to the trapping or escape of particle orbits from CMTs. The answer to this question is investigated by using results from the non-relativistic orbit calculations with guiding centre theory and a number of simple models for particle energy gain in CMTs. We find that there is a critical pitch angle dividing trapped particle orbits from the escaping particle orbits and that this critical pitch angle does not coincide with the initial loss cone angle. Furthermore, we also present a calculation of the time evolution of an anisotropic pressure tensor and of the plasma density under the assumptions that they evolve in line with our kinematic MHD CMT model and that the pressure tensor satisfies the double-adiabatic Chew-Goldburger-Low (CGL) theory. Finally, we make a first step to introduce Coulomb scattering by a Maxwellian background plasma into our guiding centre equations by changing them into a set of stochastic differential equations. We study the influence of a static background plasma onto selected particle orbits by pitch angle scattering and energy losses, and look at its effect on the particle energy and the trapping conditions.

Solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation ionizes the neutral components in the atmosphere, which is partly responsible for the formation of the ionosphere, and contributes to heating of the atmosphere. Solar flares change the solar spectrum at times by several orders of magnitude. These changes modify the Earth's upper atmosphere, causing problems to communication systems and space operations, such as increased satellite drag. Unfortunately, solar UV measurements are limited since they can only be observed with space-based sensors. In order to work around this limitation, the solar radio emissions at a wavelength of 10.7 cm have been used as a proxy for the solar UV radiation. These measurements, known as the F10.7 index, are a snapshot of the solar activity at the time they are taken and do not capture the changes that occur throughout the day, such as flares. In order to capture this daily variation, we used 1-second cadence solar radio data and compared it to solar UV measurements taken once per orbit by the TIMED satellite. We found significant correlations between some radio frequencies and different UV wavelengths during quiet times. These correlations changed in terms of radio frequency and UV wavelength during solar flares.