We report on the results from two BeppoSAX observations of the Z source GX 349+2 performed in February 2001 and covering the broad energy range 0.12–200 keV .
The light curve obtained from these observations shows a large flaring activity , the count rate varying from \sim 130 to \sim 260 counts s ^ { -1 } , indicating that the source was in the flaring branch during these observations .
The average spectrum is well described by a soft blackbody ( kT _ { BB } \sim 0.5 keV ) and a Comptonized component having a seed-photon temperature of kT _ { 0 } \sim 1 keV , an electron temperature of kT _ { e } \sim 2.7 keV , and optical depth \tau \sim 11 .
To well fit the energy spectrum three gaussian lines are needed at 1.2 keV , 2.6 keV , and 6.7 keV with corresponding equivalent widths of 13 eV , 10 eV , and 39 eV , probably associated to L-shell emission of Fe XXIV , Ly \alpha S XVI , and Fe XXV , respectively .
These lines may be produced at different distances from the neutron star , which increase when the count rate of the source increases .
An absorption edge is also needed at 9 keV with an optical depth of \sim 3 \times 10 ^ { -2 } .
From the Color-Color Diagram ( CD ) we selected five zones from which we extracted the corresponding energy spectra .
The temperatures of the blackbody and of the Comptonized component tend to increase when the intensity of the source increases .
We discuss our results comparing them to those obtained from a previous BeppoSAX observation , performed in March 2000 , during which the source was a similar position of its Z-track .
In particular we find that , although the source showed similar spectral states in the 2000 and the 2001 observations , a hard tail , that was significantly detected in March 2000 , is not observed in these recent observations .