Downstream and upstream regions used for the spectral analysis of the north-south and east-west shock fronts in Hercules A (white wedges), overlaid onto the 0.5 – 7 keV Chandra image of the cluster. A third outer wedge extending to the edge of the field of view was used to deproject the spectra (not shown here). The green semicircles mark the regions used for the spectral analysis of IC emission from the radio lobes. Radio contours are the same as in Fig. 2. See Sects. 3.2.1 and 3.2.3 for details.