First Images of a Solar Flare at Millimeter Wavelengths

We present the first high spatial resolution images of a solar flare at millimeter wavelengths. On 1994 August 17, a GOES soft X-ray class M1 flare was observed by the Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Array at 86 GHz by the Nobeyama 17 GHz array and by the Yohkoh spacecraft. The flare displayed both a prominent impulsive phase in microwaves and a gradual phase that lasted over 30 minutes. The millimeter data were taken only during the gradual phase. The millimeter images show a source with a size of ~8'', a peak brightness temperature of ~106 K, and maximum optical depth of 0.09. At both X-ray and radio wavelengths, the emitting region appeared to be compact (20''). In soft X-ray, the images are resolved into two sources: one located at a footpoint and the other at the top of the flaring loop. The millimeter emission is consistent with the predicted free-free flux from an isothermal temperature (~14 MK) loop-top source, a multitemperature footpoint source with a hot (~22 MK), and a cold (~12 MK) component. Most (80%) of the millimeter flux density originates from the top of the magnetic loop, and the footpoint contribution is only 20%.