FERMI DETECTION OF γ-RAY EMISSION FROM THE M2 SOFT X-RAY FLARE ON 2010 JUNE 12

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) M2-class solar flare, SOL2010-06-12T00:57, was modest in many respects yet exhibited remarkable acceleration of energetic particles. The flare produced an ∼50 s impulsive burst of hard X- and γ-ray emission up to at least 400 MeV observed by the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor and Large Area Telescope experiments. The remarkably similar hard X-ray and high-energy γ-ray time profiles suggest that most of the particles were accelerated to energies ∼>300 MeV with a delay of ∼10 s from mildly relativistic electrons, but some reached these energies in as little as ∼3 s. The γ-ray line fluence from this flare was about 10 times higher than that typically observed from this modest GOES class of X-ray flare. There is no evidence for time-extended >100 MeV emission as has been found for other flares with high-energy γ-rays.