Time dispersion of energetic solar particles - Unexpected velocity and species dependence
The intensity-time behavior for protons and alpha-particles, as well as for carbon, oxygen, and iron ions, has been measured following the solar flare of September 19, 1974, for energies between 0.5 and about 5 MeV per nucleon. The profiles display a time dispersion which is inversely proportional to velocity for each individual species. In addition, at a given velocity the time dispersion also depends on the charge-to-mass ratio of the ion. Based on this latter dependence, it is concluded that while carbon and oxygen are essentially fully stripped, iron nuclei are not, having an effective charge of 10 plus or minus 5. The observed dispersion cannot be explained by purely rigidity-dependent diffusive propagation.