  This paper reports on the re-analysis of solar flares in which the hard
X-rays (HXRs) come predominantly from the corona rather than from the more
usual chromospheric footpoints. All of the 26 previously analyzed event time
intervals, over 13 flares, are re-examined for consistency with a flare model
in which electrons are accelerated near the top of a magnetic loop that has a
sufficiently high density to stop most of the electrons by Coulomb collisions
before they can reach the footpoints. Of particular importance in the previous
analysis was the finding that the length of the coronal HXR source increased
with energy in the 20 - 30 keV range. However, after allowing for the
possibility that footpoint emission at the higher energies affects the inferred
length of the coronal HXR source, and using analysis techniques that suppress
the possible influence of such footpoint emission, we conclude that there is no
longer evidence that the length of the HXR coronal sources increase with
increasing energy. In fact, for the 6 flares and 12 time intervals that
satisfied our selection criteria, the loop lengths decreased on average by 1.0
+/- 0.2 arcsec between 20 and 30 keV, with a standard deviation of 3.5 arcsec.
We find strong evidence that the peak of the coronal HXR source increases in
altitude with increasing energy. For the thermal component of the emission,
this is consistent with the standard CHSKP flare model in which magnetic
reconnection in a coronal current sheet results in new hot loops being formed
at progressively higher altitudes. The explanation for the nonthermal emission
is not so clear.
