太阳耀斑色球蒸发现象的研究进展

色球蒸发是耀斑能量释放后所导致的一种动力学现象,耀斑发生时,太阳大气被加热,形成的高压驱动等离子体物质向上运动,在观测上表现为高温谱线的多普勒蓝移,有时出现硬X射线足点源逐渐向环顶源的并合过程.数值模拟在理论上验证了色球蒸发理论.色球蒸发的加热机制主要包括热传导和非热粒子束加热.回顾了色球蒸发的研究进展,介绍了不同时期空间仪器对色球蒸发的观测结果,以及数值模拟方面的研究进展,并概括了目前存在的一些主要问题,最后给出简     

白光连续谱与模型大气

本文依据白光耀斑连续发射谱的一般观测事实,通过对一系列模型大气的非局部热动平衡计算,从半经验角度探讨了白光连续发射与模型大气的关系。结果表明:光球深层的温度增加或者过渡区存在平台结构均可解释观测到的白光辐射增强。对如何从理论上来解释这些大气结构本文也提出了一些看法。     

太阳大气中氢原子的赖曼谱线

氢是太阳大气中最主要的元素。氢原子的赖曼(Lyman)谱线,尤其是赖曼阿尔法(Ly-α)谱线的辐射,是太阳色球和低过渡区能量损失的主要形式。在太阳的赖曼α像中,网络组织的辐射比较强,而辐射最强的地方是活动区。由于存在辐射转移效应,在宁静区,低阶赖曼谱线的谱形中央一般会形成一个凹陷,而在中央两侧则形成两个峰,两峰往往呈现出一定的不对称性。数值模拟和观测研究表明,赖曼谱线双峰的不对称性与高层大气中各种系统性流动有关。在太阳活动区,赖曼谱形在谱斑区与在宁静区类似;而在黑子区,赖曼谱形几乎没有中央凹陷。赖曼谱形也可用于诊断日珥、耀斑和日冕物质抛射等结构和现象的等离子体特性。该文回顾了赖曼谱线的观测历史,阐明了观测与模拟结果所揭示的物理过程,并结合笔者的认识进行了相应的评论。     

耀斑谱线轮廓不对称性研究

耀斑谱线轮廓的不对称性是耀斑动力学过程的一个重要观测事实。本文在一定的耀斑半经验大气模型基础上,计算了不同速度模式和色球凝聚下的Ha和CaⅡK谱线轮廓,从半经验角度探讨了大气各个层次的速度对Hα和CaⅡK谱线轮廓的影响。结果表明:耀斑早期短时间的Hα蓝不对称性可由位于过渡区的色球凝聚引起;随后的红不对称性是上部色球物质向下运动的结果;而后来出现的CaⅡK不对称性特征则可由色球中、下部具有10—20km/s的向下速度来解释。     

色球耀斑Hα谱线轮廓不对称性研究

Hα谱线轮廓的不对称性是色球耀斑光谱观测中的重要特征,也是耀斑动力学过程的重要观测事实之一．以紫金山天文台太阳光谱仪的观测资料为依据,给出Hα谱线不对称性的典型轮廓．在考虑氢原子非热激发、电离的作用下,经验性地计算了不同大气模型下谱线的不对称性特征,并在此基础上,对观测谱线进行半经验的研究．结果表明, 色球区的向下运动能够产生Hα谱线的红、蓝不对称性,并可以再生具体耀斑的谱线不对称性特征．此外,不仅非热粒子的能流、谱指数大小以及速度场所处的高度对谱线轮廓有影响,耀斑大气的背景模型对谱线的轮廓也有一定的影响．     

太阳过渡区的结构与特性

太阳过渡区是位于色球与日冕之间的一个高度动态的等离子体区域.通过对太阳紫外光谱的研究发现,过渡区的主要结构是以磁场集中为特征的网络组织.首先回顾太阳过渡区的研究历史,接着从整体上介绍太阳过渡区的结构及观测特征,然后介绍过渡区各种结构和现象的主要模型和物理解释,并结合作者的认识进行必要的评论,最后对未来的研究方向提出看法.     

1982年12月2日耀斑随时间变化的半经验模型

我们利用南京大学太阳塔中的多波段光谱仪,在H_α、H_β和CaⅡ H、K三个波段同时拍到了1982年12月2日日面S15W11处的一个SB级耀斑的光谱。本文给出其中七个时刻的谱线轮廓及有关参数的序列。在非局部热动平衡条件下计算了耀斑随时间变化的半经验模型,结果显示了色球耀斑的演化过程。利用模型得到了一些色球物质蒸发参数,结果同根据SMM的X射线观测所作的估计相一致。     

太阳过渡区爆发事件的观测及理论研究进展

太阳过渡区爆发事件是过渡区重要的小尺度活动现象之一,常被过渡区的紫外和极紫外谱线观测到。典型的爆发事件的寿命为60～360 s,现象出现时谱线形状呈非高斯形,谱像两翼显示双向喷流结构,喷流速度大致在100 km·s~(-1),与色球局地阿尔芬速度相当。普遍认为其产生原因为小尺度快速磁重联。主要回顾了爆发事件的观测特征及其光谱学诊断方法,阐述了爆发事件的物理形成机制及与其他过渡区小尺度结构的联系,并讨论其在太阳风形成和日冕加热过程中对物质及能量输运的影响。最后对未来爆发事件的研究提出了展望。     

恒星形成区的云核和星团

利用青海站13.7 m毫米波望远镜对17个与星团成协的恒星形成区进行了~(12)CO(J=1-0)、~(13)CO(J=1-0)和C~(18)O(J=1-0)的同时成图观测.除了IRAS04547+4753,这些源均探测到较强的C~(18)O(J=1-0)的谱线发射.由于分子云的大小不同,有13个源观测到~(13)CO(J=1-0)谱线积分强度极大值的一半处,其他源因分子云延展范围较大,没有进行大面积的成图观测.基于观测数据,计算了各云核的谱线线宽、亮温度、尺度、密度和质量等,~(13)CO和C~(13)O云核的维里质量与局部热动平衡(LTE)质量之比分别为0.66和0.74,它们接近于维里平衡状态.为了从形态方面比较云核与星团,将谱线的积分强度图与2MASS的K波段图像叠加.同时,计算了与云核成协的星团的大小和质量,数据采用了2MASS的近红外点源测光结果.基于云核与星团的质量结果,计算了分子云的恒星形成效率,大致在10%～30%的范围.     

高银纬区域HSVMT 27的CO同位素分子谱线研究

对Ursa Major区域的高银纬分子云HSVMT 27的~(12)CO、~(13)CO和C~(18)O进行了观测研究,发现这块分子云~(12)CO的激发温度较低,并探测到一定的C~(18)O辐射,但由于其发射较弱故未能成图.在0.17 km·s~(-1)的速度分辨率和0.08 pc的空间分辨率下,认证了26个~(13)CO分子云核,它们的本地热平衡(Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium,LTE)质量在0.5–10 M_⊙,均小于其维里质量,且并未发现有红外点源与云核成协.总之,数据显示在这块分子云中并没有恒星形成的活动.     

Detection of Departure from Thermal Dynamic Equilibrium in the Solar Middle and Lower Atmosphere UsingTotal Solar Eclipse Data

There are abundant emission and absorption lines superimposed on the continuum spectra of the different solar atmospheric layers. The chemical composition and physical state of the solar atmosphere can be probed by the inversion of the profiles of these spectral lines. Due to the low density and large temperature difference in the chromosphere and transition region of the Sun, it is hard to establish the thermal dynamic equilibrium. It is necessary to adopt the theory of Non-Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (N-LTE) to construct the corresponding atmospheric model. In this paper, the departure from the Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (LTE) in the middle and lower atmosphere of the sun is investigated with the well-defined relative departure factor and the relevant calculations. We first make an inversion of the spectral lines formed at the different heights in the chromosphere and transition region during a total solar eclipse, to obtain the parameters of the observed spectral lines, such as the continuum source function, line source function, Doppler width, and thus the equivalent kinetic temperature. According to these line parameters obtained by the inversion, we calculate the quantitative results about the departure from the LTE at each space sampling point in the 2D field of view. Secondly, we reconstruct the 2D distributions of the radiation intensity, equivalent kinetic temperature, and relative departure factor according to the alignment of the optical fiber array in the integrated field unit (IFU) used by the telescope. The results show that there is a stronger correlation in the distributions of the temperature and relative departure factor existed in local small regions, but without evident correlation with the distribution of radiation intensity. There is an obvious difference between the distributions of the equivalent temperature and relative departure factor derived from two spectral lines, which shows a strong structurization and complexity existed in some local small regions of the solar atmosphere, and provides a new perspective for us to further understand the physics of the middle and lower atmosphere of the Sun.     

Intensity Distribution and Contrast of the Solar EUV Network

Intensity distributions of the EUV network and the cell interior in the solar atmosphere have been obtained in fourteen emission lines from Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)/Coronal Diagnostic Spectrometer (CDS) observations. The formation temperature of the observed lines is in the range log T=4.90 – 6.06 (T in Kelvin), and hence they represent increasing heights in the solar atmosphere from the upper chromosphere and the transition region to the low corona. Intensity distributions of the cell interior have been found to be different in the quiet Sun and the coronal hole even at the lower transition region, which is at variance with some earlier results. The intensity contrast of the network with respect to the cell interior has been obtained for each line, and differences in the quiet Sun and the coronal hole have been examined. The network contrast, in general, is lower for the coronal hole as compared to the quiet Sun, but becomes equal to it in the upper transition region. The maximum contrast for both the regions is at about log T=5.3. Also obtained are the relative contributions of the network and the cell interior to the total intensity. The implications of the results for models of the transition region are briefly mentioned.     

Flare model chromospheres and photospheres

Homogeneous plane-parallel model atmospheres for solar flares have been constructed to approximately simulate observations of flares. The wings of the Ca II lines have been used to derive flare upper photosphere models, which indicate temperature increases of ～100 K over the temperature distribution in the pre-existing facula at a height of 300 km above τ₅₀₀₀ = 1. In the case of flares covering sunspots the temperature rise seems to occur much higher in the atmosphere. We solve the transfer and statistical equilibrium equations for a three-level hydrogen atom and a five-level calcium atom in order to obtain the chromospheric flare models. The general properties of flares, including n _e, N ₂, linear thickness, and Lyman continuum intensity are approximately reproduced. We find that with increasing flare importance the height of the upper chromosphere and transition region occur lower in the solar atmosphere, accounting for the factor of 60–600 increase in pressure in these regions relative to the quiet Sun. The Ca II line profiles agree with observations only by assuming a macro-velocity distribution that increases with height. Also the chromospheric parts of flares appear to be highly inhomogeneous. We show that shock and particle heated flare models do not agree with the observations and propose a thermal response model for flares. In particular, it appears that heating in the photosphere is an essential aspect of flares.     

A new way to measure the departure from thermodynamic equilibrium in stellar atmospheres

A new way to measure the departure from thermodynamic equilibrium is proposed based on the departure factor which evaluates the deviation from a Boltzmann level distribution, used by Short and Hauschildt (2005) and others. The way is based on an explicit relationship describing the departure factor as a function of line to continuum source, dynamic temperature and line photon frequency, under three assumptions that the scattering can be neglected, the background continuum can be treated as a Planck function, and finally the complete redistribution can be true. It has the advantage that the departure can be very conveniently evaluated from the spectral analysis with only the radiative transfer involved. Some physical insights are recovered for some extreme cases.Some example calculations of the departure are presented for the quiet Sun, faint solar flare and strong solar flare for the generally used solar chromospheric lines: Hα, Hβ,CaII H, K and triplet. It is revealed that in the case of solar flares, the departure is less than thermodynamic equilibrium along the larger depth range than in the quiet sun due to chromospheric condensation. It becomes hard to distinguish the departures for the different lines of the same atom or ion. It is expected that this investigation can be constructive for studying stellar atmospheres in cases where the three assumptions are close to reality.     

The Validity of Dynamical Models of the Solar Atmosphere

Important results on the structure and dynamics of the nonmagnetic solar chromosphere are based on hydrodynamic models that oversimplify either the geometry of the atmosphere or the interaction of radiation and matter. Although the observed granulation pattern is well reproduced by the three-dimensional (3D) models, oversimplification of radiative relaxation leads to the prediction of temperature fluctuations that are too high (by a factor of 10 to 100) and result in a monotonic decrease with height in the chromosphere of the horizontally and temporally averaged temperature, and hence in the prediction of absorption lines at wavelengths where only emission lines are observed on the Sun. New values of solar abundances of oxygen and other metals are based on 3D hydrodynamic models with temporal and spatial fluctuations that are far greater than those observed. These new abundances destroy the previous agreement of observed modes with acoustic eigenmodes that had been predicted for the old abundances from a solar model for which the sound speed throughout most of the Sun was determined to an accuracy of a few parts in 10⁴. One expects that, when radiative relaxation is properly accounted for, 3D models will reproduce the essential characteristics of the solar atmosphere, among them a positive temperature gradient in the outward direction and hence exclusively emission lines in the extreme ultraviolet at all times and positions in the nonmagnetic chromosphere. A?minimum characteristic length of 0.1?arcsec is identified for the solar atmosphere, below which there is no significant structure in the actual Sun, only in wave models of the Sun. This criticism does not detract from the notable success of hydrodynamic modeling to explain the mechanism by which chromospheric H_2V and K_2V bright points are formed.     

Spectroscopic Coronal Observations During the Total Solar Eclipse of 11 July 2010

The flash spectra of the solar chromosphere and corona were measured with a slitless spectrograph before, after, and during the totality of the solar eclipse of 11 July 2010, at Easter Island, Chile. This eclipse took place at the beginning of Solar Cycle 24, after an extended minimum of solar activity. The spectra taken during the eclipse show a different intensity ratio of the red and green coronal lines compared with those taken during the total solar eclipse of 1 August 2008, which took place toward the end of Solar Cycle 23. The characteristic coronal emission line of forbidden Fe xiv (5303 Å) was observed on the east and west solar limbs in four areas relatively symmetrically located with respect to the solar rotation axis. Subtraction of the continuum flash-spectrum background led to the identification of several extremely weak emission lines, including forbidden Ca xv (5694 Å), which is normally detected only in regions of very high excitation, e.g., during flares or above large sunspots. The height of the chromosphere was measured spectrophotometrically, using spectral lines from light elements and compared with the equivalent height of the lower chromosphere measured using spectral lines from heavy elements.     

Solar oscillations in strong and weak fraunhofer lines over a quiet region

We have analysed a 35-min-long time sequence of spectra in the Caii H line, Nai D1 and D2 lines, and in a large number of strong and weak Fei lines taken over a quiet region at the center of the solar disk. The time series of these spectra have been observed simultaneously in these lines under high spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution at the Vacuum Tower Telescope (VTT) of the Sacramento Peak Observatory. We have derived the line profiles and their central intensity values at the sites of the chromospheric bright points, which are visible in the H line for easy identification. We have done a power spectrum analysis for all the lines, using their central intensity values to determine the period of oscillations. It is shown that the 3 Fei lines, present 23 Å away from the core of the H line representing the pure photospheric lines, Nai D1 and D2 lines, 6 Fei lines at the wings of H line, and Can H line exhibit 5-min, 4.05-min, 3.96-min, and 3.2-min periodicity in their intensity oscillations, respectively. Since all these lines form at different heights in the solar atmosphere from low photosphere to middle chromosphere and show different periodicities in their intensity oscillations, these studies may give an idea about the spatial and temporal relation between the photospheric and chromospheric intensities. Therefore these studies will help to better understand the physical mechanisms of solar oscillations. It is clearly seen that the period of intensity oscillations decreases outward from the low photosphere to the middle chromosphere. Since we have studied a single feature at a time on the Sun (i.e., bright points seen in the H line) in all these spectral lines simultaneously, this may explain about the footpoints of the bright points, the origin of 3-min oscillations, and the relation to other oscillations pertaining to these locations on the Sun. We have concluded that 80% of the bright points are associated with dark elements in the true continuum, and they may seem to have a relationship with the dark intergranular lanes of the photosphere, after carefully examining the brightness (bright threads) extending from the core to the far wings of the H line at the locations of a large number of bright points, using their time sequence of spectra.NRC Resident Research Associate, on leave from Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore 560034, India.     

SUMER - Solar Ultraviolet Measurements of Emitted Radiation

The instrument SUMER - Solar Ultraviolet Measurements of Emitted Radiation is designed to investigate structures and associated dynamical processes occurring in the solar atmosphere, from the chromosphere through the transition region to the inner corona, over a temperature range from 10⁴ to 2 × 10⁶ K and above. These observations will permit detailed spectroscopic diagnostics of plasma densities and temperatures in many solar features, and will support penetrating studies of underlying physical processes, including plasma flows, turbulence and wave motions, diffusion transport processes, events associated with solar magnetic activity, atmospheric heating, and solar wind acceleration in the inner corona. Specifically, SUMER will measure profiles and intensities of EUV lines; determine Doppler shifts and line broadenings with high accuracy; provide stigmatic images of the Sun in the EUV with high spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution; and obtain monochromatic maps of the full Sun and the inner corona or selected areas thereof. SUMER will be flown on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), scheduled for launch in November, 1995. This paper has been written to familiarize solar physicists with SUMER and to demonstrate some command procedures for achieving certain scientific observations.     

The abundance of helium in prominences and in the chromosphere

The abundance of helium relative to hydrogen is spectroscopically determined in prominences and in the chromosphere by using 1952, 1958, 1962 and 1966 eclipse data. Care is taken in the intensity calibration of emission lines, the self-absorption, and the departure from local thermodynamic equilibrium. We find from the line profiles and intensities of prominences and the chromosphere that the neutral helium lines are emitted in the metal-hydrogen emitting region where the kinetic temperature is low enough, 6000 8000 K, so that only the ionization due to UV radiation from the corona can explain the intensity of neutral helium emission. Also we find that the intensity ratio of Hei 3888.65 to H₈ 3889.05 increases towards the upper boundaries of prominences and of the chromosphere and that it approaches to a universal limiting value, both in various prominences or in the chromosphere, where it is considered that the ionization of neutral helium and hydrogen is nearly complete. From these facts the helium to hydrogen number ratio is found to be 6.5 ± 1.5%.A new schematic model of the chromosphere is presented where spicules have no hot region of emitting neutral helium lines. Here it is suggested that the kinetic temperature of spicules, 6000 8000 K, would be primarily determined by the radiation temperature of the corona and the transition region beyond the Lyman continuum of hydrogen which happens to be around those temperatures.     

Magnetic fields of sunspots based on combined optical and radio observations

In the present paper we present the results of measurement of magnetic fields in some sunspots at different heights in the solar atmosphere, based on simultaneous optical and radio measurements. The optical measurements were made by traditional photographic spectral observations of Zeeman splitting in a number of spectral lines originating at different heights in the solar photosphere and chromosphere. Radio observations of the spectra and polarization of the sunspot - associated sources were made in the wavelength range of 2–4 cm using large reflector-type radio telescope RATAN-600. The magnetic field penetrating the hot regions of the solar atmosphere were found from the shortest wavelength of generation of thermal cyclotron emission (presumably in the third harmonic of electron gyrofrequency). For all the eight cases under consideration we have found that magnetic field first drops with height, increases from the photosphere to lower chromosphere, and then decreases again as we proceed to higher chromosphere and chromosphere-corona transition region. Radio measurements were found to be well correlated with optical measurements of magnetic fields for the same sunspot. An alternative interpretation implies that different lines used for magnetic field measurements refer to different locations on the solar surface. If this is the case, then the inversion in vertical gradients of magnetic fields may not exist above the sunspots. Possible sources of systematic and random errors are also discussed.