2 ACCELERATED ELECTRON POPULATIONS IN THE 1980 JUNE 27 SOLAR-FLARE

We invert high spectral resolution hard X-ray observations of the 1980 June 27 solar flare to obtain the parent X-ray-producing electron pop ulation. Assuming that collisions are the dominant loss mechanism, the accelerated electron population is derived as a function of time thro ugh the flare, using a continuity equation. We find that there appear to be two separate components in the accelerated electrons: an impulsi ve component with a spectrum peaked at approximately 50 keV, and a slo wly varying component with a power-law spectrum extending down to appr oximately 20 keV. The peaked spectra are highly suggestive of accelera tion by quasi-static DC electric fields parallel to the magnetic field , similar to that observed for Earth's aurora. The slowly varying comp onent, however, dominates the total energy contained in accelerated el ectrons. With these high spectral resolution measurements and this ana lysis technique, accurate numbers are obtained for the first time for the total energy in accelerated electrons. We find that approximately 1.4 x 10(30) ergs must be contained in greater-than-or-equal-to 33 keV accelerated electrons for an ionized ambient medium. This is a signif icant fraction of the total energy released in the flare.