Abstract
THE satellite Ariel V carries a proportional counter pointed along the spin axis. We report here the detection of a strong flux of X rays coming from the sunlit Earth during two large solar flares. These albedo X rays are proportional to the solar X-ray flux and consist of scattered X rays and a strong fluorescent line at 3 keV from atmospheric argon. There is also a weaker line at ∼ 7 keV which is probably present in the incident solar spectrum.
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References
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SEWARD, F., HORTON, B., POLLARD, G. et al. Argon fluorescent X rays in the Earth's atmosphere during solar flares. Nature 264, 421–423 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1038/264421a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/264421a0
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