A survey of approximately 1 MeV/nucleon solar flare particle abundances, in the Z ? 1-26 range, during the 1973-1977 solar minimum period

The abundances of the major elements over the range H-Fe in solar flare energetic particles near 1 MeV/nucleon were surveyed for a large number of flares during the period 1973-1977; observations were carried out by the IMP 8 spacecraft in interplanetary space. The survey considered two types of solar flare events: (1) large events from which the average boundaries were deduced, and (2) events which have significant abundance differences from average. In addition, two He-3-rich events with abundance features that are different from previous examples are reported: one case with no enhancements of heavy ions, and a second case in which, compared to O, the heavy-ion enhancements are confined to the charge range Si-Fe rather than the usual case in which all elements Ne-Fe are enriched.