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Measurements were done to obtain the one-dimensional sizes of rapidly fluctuating bursts with fast spikes whose rise times are typically about one second, and in some extreme cases less than 0.1 second. The results of two bursts with fast spikes are presented. One has a soft spectrum, and the other has a very hard spectrum. The measured one-dimensional size of both events indicates relatively a small size and simple structure. It can be said, however, that the source size is not so small as expected from its rapid time variations. Therefore, a thermal explanation of these bursts seems to be excluded.

Observations of a flare which occurred just behind the west solar limb on 1981 August 3 are reported. A hard X-ray source (20-30 keV) and a microwave source at 5 GHz were observed simultaneously using the Very Large Array and the hard X-ray telescope aboard the Hinotori spacecraft. Both sources were located in the corona, apparently near the tops of two independent coronal arcades or loops. The source may be composed of many thin filaments unresolved by the VLA observations.

A superhot hard X-ray source in a solar flare occulted by the solar limb was identified. Its hard X-ray image was found to show great horizontal extent but little vertical extent. An H alpha brightening at the same limb position about an hour later suggests a multi-component loop prominence system, so that it appears that a superhot source can evolve in the same manner as a normal solar soft X-ray source. The assignment of plausiable values to physical parameters in the source suggests (from the simplest form of classical thermal-conduction theory) that either new physics will be required to suppress conduction, or else that gradual energy release well after the impulsive phase of the flare must occur. In this respect too, the superhot source appears to resemble ordinary soft X-ray sources, except of course that its temperature is higher.

Interferometric observations at 17 GHz of several small X-ray flares are presented along with soft X-ray observations of preflare active regions to show that a large mass increase accompanies the formation of an X-ray hot region in the corona. The total amount of energy contained in a hot coronal region is estimated, and a model is proposed in which a significant amount of the hot matter is supplied to the corona from the chromosphere during each flare. According to this model, energy produced by some coronal instability is transported by thermal conduction to the chromosphere, where dense gas is heated and subsequently expands into the corona. It is shown that impulsive heating of the chromosphere by nonthermal electrons cannot be the energy source of this model because the total energy supplied to the hot region during the gradual phase must be much greater than that supplied during the impulsive phase.

Potential sources of infrared (1 micron to 1 mm) continuum in solar flares are considered. Several mechanisms should produce detectable fluxes: in the 350 micron window for ground-based observations, impulsive emission will arise in synchrotron radiation from 1-10 MeV electrons, and possibly thermal (free-free) continuum from the source of the white-light flare; the hot flare plasma responsible for soft X-ray emission will also emit detectable fluxes of free-free continuum in the largest flares. At shorter wavelengths the dominant infrared emission will come from the H alpha flare itself. Observations in the infrared wavelengths will help to complete the picture of flare structure in both the impulsive and gradual phases.

A set of 22 simple impulsive solar flares, identified in the OSO 5 hard X-ray data, has been analyzed together with coincident microwave and meter-wave radio observations. The rise times and fall times of the X-ray bursts are found to be highly correlated and effectively equal, strongly suggesting a flare-energizing mechanism that is reversible. The good time resolution available for these observations reveals that the microwave emission is influenced by an additional process, evident in the tendency of the microwave emission to peak later and decay more slowly than the symmetric X-ray bursts. Meter-wave emission is observed in coincidence with five events which also show strong time correlation between the X-ray and microwave burst structure. This meter-wave emission is characterized by U-burst radiation, indicating confinement of the flare source. The relationship found between the X-ray burst duration and the calculated flare diameter, together with the thermal character of the X-ray spectra, gives additional support to the hypothesis that the impulsive component is driven by adiabatic compression and expansion of a magnetically confined plasma which is the common primary source of both X-ray and microwave emission.

A set of 22 simple, impulsive solar flares, identified in the OSO-5 hard X-ray data, were analyzed together with coincident microwave and meterwave radio observations. The rise times and fall times of the X-ray bursts are found to be highly correlated and effectively equal, strongly suggesting a flare energizing mechanism that is reversible. The good time resolution available for these observations reveals that the microwave emission is influenced by an additional process, evident in the tendency of the microwave emission to peak later and decay more slowly than the symmetric X-ray bursts. Meterwave emission is observed in coincidence with the 5 events which show the strongest time correlation between the X-ray and microwave burst structure. This meterwave emission is characterized by U-burst radiation, indicating confinement of the flare source.

The following new hypothesis is proposed. The decay time of plasma waves is much shorter than the time scale of type 3 bursts especially at low frequencies. Accordingly, the time variation of radio flux at a given frequency merely corresponds to the flux of fast electrons passing through the corresponding plasma layer.