J. Leenaarts

On-disk Counterparts of Type II Spicules in the Ca II 854.2 nm and Hα Lines

Recently, a second type of spicules was discovered at the solar limb with the Solar Optical Telescope onboard the Japanese Hinode spacecraft. These previously unrecognized type II spicules are thin chromospheric jets that are shorter lived (10-60 s) and that show much higher apparent upward velocities (of order 50-100 km s–1) than the classical spicules. Since they have been implicated in providing hot plasma to coronal loops, their formation, evolution, and properties are important ingredients for a better understanding of the mass and energy balance of the low solar atmosphere. Here, we report on the discovery of the disk counterparts of type II spicules using spectral imaging data in the Ca II 854.2 nm and Hα lines with the CRisp Imaging SpectroPolarimeter at the Swedish Solar Telescope in La Palma. We find rapid blueward excursions in the line profiles of both chromospheric lines that correspond to thin, jet-like features that show apparent velocities of order 50 km s–1. These blueward excursions seem to form a separate absorbing component with Doppler shifts of order 20 and 50 km s–1 for the Ca II 854.2 nm and Hα line, respectively. We show that the appearance, lifetimes, longitudinal and transverse velocities, and occurrence rate of these rapid blue excursions on the disk are very similar to those of the type II spicules at the limb. A detailed study of the spectral line profiles in these events suggests that plasma is accelerated along the jet, and plasma is being heated throughout the short lifetime of the event.

The Formation of IRIS Diagnostics. II. The Formation of the Mg II h&k Lines in the Solar Atmosphere

NASAs Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) small explorer mission will study how the solar atmosphere is energized. IRIS contains an imaging spectrograph that covers the Mg II h&k lines as well as a slit-jaw imager centered at Mg II k. Understanding the observations requires forward modeling of Mg II h&k line formation from 3D radiation-MHD models. We compute the vertically emergent h&k intensity from a snapshot of a dynamic 3D radiation-MHD model of the solar atmosphere, and investigate which diagnostic information about the atmosphere is contained in the synthetic line profiles. We find that the Doppler shift of the central line depression correlates strongly with the vertical velocity at optical depth unity, which is typically located less than 200 km below the transition region (TR). By combining the Doppler shifts of the h and the k line we can retrieve the sign of the velocity gradient just below the TR. The intensity in the central line depression is anticorrelated with the formation height, especially in subfields of a few square Mm. This intensity could thus be used to measure the spatial variation of the height of the transition region. The intensity in the line-core emission peaks correlates with the temperature at its formation height, especially for strong emission peaks. The peaks can thus be exploited as a temperature diagnostic. The wavelength difference between the blue and red peaks provides a diagnostic of the velocity gradients in the upper chromosphere. The intensity ratio of the blue and red peaks correlates strongly with the average velocity in the upper chromosphere. We conclude that the Mg II h&k lines are excellent probes of the very upper chromosphere just below the transition region, a height regime that is impossible to probe with other spectral lines.

The Formation of IRIS Diagnostics. I. A Quintessential Model Atom of Mg II and General Formation Properties of the Mg II h&k Lines

NASAs Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) space mission will study how the solar atmosphere is energized. IRIS contains an imaging spectrograph that covers the Mg II h&k lines as well as a slit-jaw imager centered at Mg II k. Understanding the observations will require forward modeling of Mg II h&k line formation from 3D radiation-MHD models. This paper is the first in a series where we undertake this forward modeling. We discuss the atomic physics pertinent to h&k line formation, present a quintessential model atom that can be used in radiative transfer computations and discuss the effect of partial redistribution (PRD) and 3D radiative transfer on the emergent line profiles. We conclude that Mg II h&k can be modeled accurately with a 4-level plus continuum Mg II model atom. Ideally radiative transfer computations should be done in 3D including PRD effects. In practice this is currently not possible. A reasonable compromise is to use 1D PRD computations to model the line profile up to and including the central emission peaks, and use 3D transfer assuming complete redistribution to model the central depression.

THREE-DIMENSIONAL NON-LTE RADIATIVE TRANSFER COMPUTATION OF THE CA 8542 INFRARED LINE FROM A RADIATION-MHD SIMULATION

The interpretation of imagery of the solar chromosphere in the widely used Ca II 854.2 nm infrared line is hampered by its complex, three-dimensional, and non-LTE formation. Forward modeling is required to aid understanding. We use a three-dimensional non-LTE radiative transfer code to compute synthetic Ca II 854.2 nm images from a radiation-MHD simulation of the solar atmosphere spanning from the convection zone to the corona. We compare the simulation with observations obtained with the CRISP filter at the Swedish 1 m Solar Telescope. We find that the simulation reproduces dark patches in the blue line wing caused by Doppler shifts, brightenings in the line core caused by upward-propagating shocks, and thin dark elongated structures in the line core that form the interface between upward and downward gas motion in the chromosphere. The synthetic line core is narrower than the observed one, indicating that the Sun exhibits both more vigorous large-scale dynamics as well as small scale motions that are not resolved within the simulation, presumably owing to a lack of spatial resolution.

How realistic are solar model atmospheres

Context. Recently, new solar model atmospheres have been developed to replace classical 1D local thermodynamical equilibrium (LTE) hydrostatic models and used to for example derive the solar chemical composition. Aims. We aim to test various models against key observational constraints. In particular, a 3D model used to derive the solar abundances, a 3D magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) model (with an imposed 10 mT vertical magnetic field), 1D NLTE and LTE models from the PHOENIX project, the 1D MARCS model, and the 1D semi-empirical model of Holweger & Muller. Methods. We confronted the models with observational diagnostics of the temperature profile: continuum centre-to-limb variations (CLVs), absolute continuum fluxes, and the wings of hydrogen lines. We also tested the 3D models for the intensity distribution of the granulation and spectral line shapes. Results. The predictions from the 3D model are in excellent agreement with the continuum CLV observations, performing even better than the Holweger & Muller model (constructed largely to fulfil such observations). The predictions of the 1D theoretical models are worse, given their steeper temperature gradients. For the continuum fluxes, predictions for most models agree well with the observations. No model fits all hydrogen lines perfectly, but again the 3D model comes ahead. The 3D model also reproduces the observed continuum intensity fluctuations and spectral line shapes very well. Conclusions. The excellent agreement of the 3D model with the observables reinforces the view that its temperature structure is realistic. It outperforms the MHD simulation in all diagnostics, implying that recent claims for revised abundances based on MHD modelling are premature. Several weaknesses in the 1D hydrostatic models (theoretical and semi-empirical) are exposed. The di erences between the PHOENIX LTE and NLTE models are small. We conclude that the 3D hydrodynamical model is superior to any of the tested 1D models, which gives further confidence in the solar abundance analyses based on it.

The Formation of IRIS Diagnostics. III. Near-ultraviolet Spectra and Images

The Mg II hk the relations between the spectral features and atmospheric properties are mostly unchanged. The peak separation is the most affected diagnostic, but mainly due to limitations of the simulation. The effects of noise start to be noticeable at a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of 20, but we show that with noise filtering one can obtain reliable diagnostics at least down to a S/N of 5. The many photospheric lines present in the NUV window provide velocity information for at least eight distinct photospheric heights. Using line-free regions in the h&k far wings, we derive good estimates of photospheric temperature for at least three heights. Both of these diagnostics, in particular the latter, can be obtained even at S/Ns as low as 5.

A comparison of solar proxy-magnetometry diagnostics

Aims. We test various proxy-magnetometry diagnostics, i.e., brightness signatures of small-scale magnetic elements, for studying magnetic field structures in the solar photosphere. Methods. Images are numerically synthesized from a 3D solar magneto-convection simulation for, respectively, the G band at 430.5 nm, the CN band at 388.3 nm, and the blue wings of the Hα, Hβ, Caii H, and Ca ii 854.2 nm lines. Results. Both visual comparison and scatter diagrams of the computed intensity versus the magnetic field strength show that, in particular for somewhat spatially extended magnetic elements, the blue Hα wing presents the best proxy-magnetometry diagnostic, followed by the blue wing of Hβ. The latter yields higher diffraction-limit resolution. Conclusions. We recommend using the blue Hα wing to locate and track small-scale photospheric magnetic elements through their brightness appearance.

THE EFFECT OF ISOTOPIC SPLITTING ON THE BISECTOR AND INVERSIONS OF THE SOLAR Ca II 854.2 nm LINE

The Ca II 854.2 nm spectral line is a common diagnostic of the solar chromosphere. The average line profile shows an asymmetric core, and its bisector shows a characteristic inverse-C shape. The line actually consists of six components with slightly different wavelengths depending on the isotope of calcium. This isotopic splitting of the line has been taken into account in studies of non-solar stars, but never for the Sun. We performed non-LTE radiative transfer computations from three models of the solar atmosphere and show that the line-core asymmetry and inverse C-shape of the bisector of the 854.2 nm line can be explained by isotopic splitting. We confirm this finding by analyzing observations and showing that the line asymmetry is present irrespective of conditions in the solar atmosphere. Finally, we show that inversions based on the Ca II 854.2 nm line should take the isotopic splitting into account, otherwise the inferred atmospheres will contain erroneous velocity gradients and temperatures.

Temperature constraints from inversions of synthetic solar optical, UV, and radio spectra

High-resolution observations of the solar chromosphere at millimeter wavelengths are now possible with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), promising to tackle many open problems in solar physics. Observations from other ground and space-based telescopes will greatly benefit from coordinated endeavors with ALMA, yet the diagnostic potential of combined optical, ultraviolet and mm observations has remained mostly unassessed. In this paper we investigate whether mm-wavelengths could aid current inversion schemes to retrieve a more accurate representation of the temperature structure of the solar atmosphere. We performed several non-LTE inversion experiments of the emergent spectra from a snapshot of 3D radiation-MHD simulation. We included common line diagnostics such as CaII H, K, 8542 \AA

Three-dimensional modeling of the Ca II H and K lines in the solar atmosphere

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