Observations of nuclear emissions in solar flares

The observed energy loss spectra obtained with a gamma‐ray detector during a solar flare can consist of a admixture of counts from primary electron bremsstrahlung, broad and narrow nuclear lines, gamma‐rays from nuclear pion decay as well as energetic neutrons which survive to 1 AU. The details of each of these spectral components depend in a different way on the properties of both the accelerated particle species and the interaction of target region. In order to extract this information the observed energy loss spectra must be separated into its several components. We present samples of solar flare data from the Gamma Ray Spectrometer on SMM and describe the initial experimental procedures used to separate these components. These experimental unfolding and interpretive procedures along with theoretical modeling of these results have allowed the GRS data to be used to show that both electrons and ions are impulsively accelerated early in solar flares and that this acceleration process can produce electron...