Revisiting the SHH and SEP Link
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Introduction
Two previous Nuggets have debated the possibility of a link between solar energetic particle (SEP) events and "soft-hard-harder" (SHH) spectral behavior in solar flares. In "Soft-Hard-Harder", Sam Krucker and Hugh Hudson discussed five RHESSI flares that confirmed this relation, but Gerry Share and Allan Tylka later questioned the link when considering five more RHESSI and Yohkoh events in "SEPs Link not Confirmed".
This correlation was originally studied by Alan Kiplinger, using 10 years of data from the Hard X-ray Burst Spectrometer aboard the Solar Maximum Mission. Kiplinger found that 96% of SEP-producing flares were predicted by SHH behavior, suggesting that the two processes are somehow linked. This strong statistical correlation alone is of course interesting for space-weather prediction applications, but confirming or discrediting the link is also important for motivating further investigation into the actual dynamics that could relate the two phenomena.
Here we present the results of our recent study on the subject. Our findings appear to ratify the correlation between SHH and SEP occurrence, in agreement with Kiplinger.
