Distribution of Δϕ for hemispheric flares (panels a–c) and Δθ for transequatorial flares (panels d–f) with w ≤ 1.5 hours comparing RHESSI (orange) and SDO/AIA (blue). The first, second and third row correspond to the total cycle, the rising phase and the decaying phase, respectively. The fits of Equation (3) are shown as dashed lines. Northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere flares are used in panel b and c respectively to maximize the signal (see Figure 6 for hemispheric asymmetry).