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Solar Flare Abundances of Potassium, Argon, and SulphurThe absolute coronal abundances of potassium has been determined for the first time from X-ray solar flare line and continuous spectra together with absolute and relative abundances of Ar and S. Potassium is of importance in the continuing debate concerning the nature of the coronal/photospheric element abundance ratios which are widely considered to depend on first ionization potential since it has the lowest FIP of any common element in the Sun. The measurements were obtained with the RESIK crystal spectrometer on the Coronas-F spacecraft. A differential emission measure DEM = const. x exp (-(beta)T(sub e) was found to be the most consistent with the data out of three models considered. We find that the coronal ratio [K/H] = 3.7 x 10(exp - 7), a factor 3 times photospheric, in agreement with other observations using line-to-line ratios. Our measured value for the coronal ratio [Ar/H] = 1.5 x 10(exp -6) is significantly less than photospheric, indicating that there is a slight depletion of this high-FIP element in the corona. For S (an intermediate-FIP element) we obtained [S/H] = 2.2 x 10(exp - 5), approximately the same as in previous work.
Document ID
20030053375
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Oegerle, William
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Phillips, K. J. H.
(National Academy of Sciences - National Research Council Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Sylwester, J.
(Polish Academy of Sciences Cracow, Poland)
Sylwester, B.
(Polish Academy of Sciences Cracow, Poland)
Landi, E.
(Artep, Inc. Ellicott City, MD, United States)
Date Acquired
August 21, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2003
Subject Category
Astronomy
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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