Solar flares present a number of radiative characteristics indicative of kinetic processes of high energy particles. Proper understanding of the kinetic processes, however, relies on how well we can separate the acceleration from transport characteristics. In this paper, we discuss microwave and hard X-ray bursts as a powerful tool in investigating the acceleration and transport of high energy electrons. After a brief review of the studies devoted to the kinetic process of solar flare particles, we cast them into a simple formulation which allows us to handle the injection, trap, and precipitation of flare electrons self-consistently. The formulation is then taken as a basis for interpreting and analyzing a set of impulsive and gradual bursts occurred on 2001 April 6 observed with the Owens Valley Solar Array, and HXT/WBS onboard Yohkoh satellite. We quantify the acceleration, trap, and precipitation processes during each burst in terms of relevant time scales, and also determine ambient density and magnetic field. Our result suggests that it should be the acceleration property, in particular, electron pitch angle distribution, rather than the trap condition, that is mainly responsible for the distinctive properties of the impulsive and gradual flares.

Quiescent solar radiation, at microwave spectral regime, is dominated by gyroresonant and thermal Bremsstrahlung radiations from hot electrons residing in solar active region corona. These radiations are known to provide excellent diagnostics on the coronal temperature, density, and magnetic field, provided that spatially resolved spectra are available from observations. In this paper we present an imaging spectroscopy implemented for a bipolar active region, AR 7912, using the multifrequency interferometric data from the Owens Valley Solar Array (OVSA), as processed with a new imaging technique, so-called Spatio-Spectral Maximum Entropy Method (SSMEM). From the microwave maps at 26 frequencies in the range of 1.2-12.4 GHz at both right- and left-circular polarizations, we construct spatially resolved brightness spectra in every reconstructed pixel of about 2 arcsec interval. These spectra allowed us to determine 2-D distribution of electron temperature, magnetic field of coronal base, and emission measure at the coronal base above the active region. We briefly compare the present result with existing studies of the coronal active regions.

Solar microwave bursts carry information about the magnetic field in the emitting region as well as about electrons accelerated during solar flares. While this sensitivity to the coronal magnetic field must be a unique advantage of solar microwave burst observations, it also adds a complexity to spectral analysis targeted to electron diagnostics. This paper introduces a new spectral analysis procedure in which the cross-section and thickness of a microwave source are expressed as power-law functions of the magnetic field so that the degree of magnetic inhomogeneity can systematically be derived. We applied this spectral analysis tool to two contrasting events observed by the Owens Valley Solar Array: the SOL2003-04-04T20:55 flare with a steep microwave spectrum and the SOL2003-10-19T16:50 flare with a broader spectrum. Our analysis shows that the strong flare with the broader microwave spectrum occurred in a region of highly inhomogeneous magnetic field and vice versa. We further demonstrate that such source properties are consistent with the magnetic field observations from the Michelson Doppler Imager instrument onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft and the extreme ultraviolet imaging observations from the SOHO extreme ultraviolet imaging telescope. This spectral inversion tool is particularly useful for analyzing microwave flux spectra of strong flares from magnetically complex systems.

Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental process occurring in a wide range of astrophysical, heliospheric and laboratory plasmas. This process alters magnetic topology and triggers rapid conversion of magnetic energy into thermal heating and nonthermal particle acceleration. Efforts to understand the physics of magnetic reconnection have been made across multiple disciplines using remote observations of solar flares and in-situ measurements of geomagnetic storms and substorms as well as laboratory and numerical experiments. This review focuses on the progress achieved with solar flare observations in which most reconnection-related signatures could be resolved in both space and time. The emphasis is on various observable emission features in the low solar atmosphere which manifest the coronal magnetic reconnection because these two regions are magnetically connected to each other. The research and application perspectives of solar magnetic reconnection are briefly discussed and compared with those in other plasma environments.