Hard and soft X-ray observations of occulted and nonocculted solar limb flares

Using observations from the Yohkoh Bragg Crystal Spectrometer (BCS), the So ft X-Ray Telescope, and the Hard X-Ray Telescope, we have examined the prop erties of 45 limb flares. Twenty-eight of the flares appear to have most or all of their footpoints occulted by the solar limb, leaving only soft X-ra y emission from a looptop source visible. The remaining 17 flares have expo sed footpoints. In most observational characteristics, occulted limb flares are indistinguishable from nonocculted limb flares. There does appear to b e some evidence that the peak temperature observed in the BCS Ca XIX; chann el is lower by 2-3 MK in the occulted flares. We also see some tendency for the hard X-ray spectra averaged over the entire event to exhibit a softer spectral index in the occulted limb flares. Most of the flares for which it is possible to measure a peak in the Ca xa: nonthermal broadening velocity as a function of time show that the peak in the nonthermal broadening velo city occurs after the first significant hard X-ray peak.