The origin of solar white-light flares

It is believed that solar white-light flares (WLFs) originate from the lower atmosphere. In particular, some recently observed WLFs show a very large continuum enhancement at 1.56 microns where the opacity reaches minimum. Therefore, it is important to make clear how the energy is transferred to the very low layers responsible for the production of WLFs. We study the possible mechanisms that may directly or indirectly help increase the continuum emission. We make calculations of model atmospheres and compare the results with observations.