The Si IV λ 1393 line in a coronal hole compared to the quiet Sun from OSO-8 observations

We report on studies of the 1393 line of Si iv, formed in the transition region at about 80 000 K, made using the Colorado experiment on OSO-8. Results indicate that the line width is somewhat greater in coronal holes compared to the quiet Sun, implying a difference in the broadening mechanism. There is no evidence that the line is Doppler shifted in coronal holes relative to the quiet Sun implying there is no mass flow in holes, at the 80 000 K level, greater than 4.3 km s^–1. Within the uncertainty of our experiment the integrated line intensities are the same in a coronal hole as in the quiet Sun.     

Theoretical line intensities from MgVI,SiVIII, and SX coronal ions

Emission line intensities from MgVI, SiVIII, andSX ions of nitrogen sequence have been computed by use of the model atmosphere of Kopp and Orrall (1976) for the quiet Sun and coronal holes and compared with observational data available from rocket and satellite.     

Similarities and Differences between Coronal Holes and the Quiet Sun: Are Loop Statistics the Key?

Coronal holes (CH) emit significantly less at coronal temperatures than quiet-Sun regions (QS), but can hardly be distinguished in most chromospheric and lower transition region lines. A key quantity for the understanding of this phenomenon is the magnetic field. We use data from SOHO/MDI to reconstruct the magnetic field in coronal holes and the quiet Sun with the help of a potential magnetic model. Starting from a regular grid on the solar surface we then trace field lines, which provide the overall geometry of the 3D magnetic field structure. We distinguish between open and closed field lines, with the closed field lines being assumed to represent magnetic loops. We then try to compute some properties of coronal loops. The loops in the coronal holes (CH) are found to be on average flatter than in the QS. High and long closed loops are extremely rare, whereas short and low-lying loops are almost as abundant in coronal holes as in the quiet Sun. When interpreted in the light of loop scaling laws this result suggests an explanation for the relatively strong chromospheric and transition region emission (many low-lying, short loops), but the weak coronal emission (few high and long loops) in coronal holes. In spite of this contrast our calculations also suggest that a significant fraction of the cool emission in CHs comes from the open flux regions. Despite these insights provided by the magnetic field line statistics further work is needed to obtain a definite answer to the question if loop statistics explain the differences between coronal holes and the quiet Sun.     

Limb observations of He I 1083 nm

Imaging spectroscopic data of the He i 1083 nm limb emission were taken on several dates in October and November 1995 with the NASA/NSO spectromagnetograph at the NSO/Kitt Peak vacuum telescope and on 9 December, 1993 with the Michigan infrared camera at the NSO/Sacramento Peak vacuum tower telescope. Emission line profiles were observed in quiet-Sun and coronal hole locations on the northern and southern solar poles and on the east solar limb. The height of the He i 1083 nm shell above the continuum limb at 1083 nm was measured to be 2.11 ± 0.12 Mm with the Kitt Peak data, and 1.74 ± 0.05 Mm with the Sacramento Peak data. The Kitt Peak data show (1) within the measurement error there is no significant difference in the height or thickness of the emission shell in coronal holes compared with the quiet Sun, (2) the 1083 nm emission intensity drops by 50% in coronal holes, (3) the line width decreases by about 2 km s^-1 in coronal holes (suggesting less inclined spicules), (4) the line width of the He i 1083 nm line jumps significantly as the line of sight crosses the solar limb (consistent with a higher temperature upper shell), (5) a quiescent prominence shows a smaller spectral line width (consistent with a cooler temperature or less velocity broadening), and (6) the entire emission shell and the prominence show a He i spectral component ratio of about 8 (suggesting optically thin emission).Operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA), under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation.     

Oscillatory Behavior in the Corona

We detect and analyze the oscillatory behavior of waves using a coronal seismology tool on sequences of coronal images. We study extreme-ultraviolet image sequences of active and quiet Sun regions and of coronal holes we identify 3- and 5-minute periodicities. In each studied region the 3- and 5-minute periodicities are similarly frequent. The number of pixels exhibiting a 3-minute periodicity is between 6 %?–?8 % and those pixels exhibiting a 5-minute periodicity is between 5 %?–?9 % of the total number of observed pixels. Our results show 3-minute oscillations along coronal loop structures but do not show 5-minute oscillations along these same loop structures. The number of pixels exhibiting 3- and 5-minute periodicities in one type of region (active Sun, quiet Sun, and coronal holes) is roughly the same for all observed regions, leading us to infer that the 3- and 5-minute oscillations are the result of a global mechanism.     

Forbidden line ratios from Si viii and S x coronal ions

The off-limb spectra, recorded by the NRL Skylab spectrograph, have been used to infer electron densities from theoretical curves of Si viii and S x density-sensitive line ratios. The derived densities are found to be in agreement with those reported by Feldman et al. (1978). Computed line intensities using the Kopp and Orrall (1976) model have also been used to estimate densities in the quite Sun and coronal holes from these curves.     

The quiet sun brightness temperature at 408 MHz

The flux of the radio quiet Sun and the brightness temperature at 408 MHz (73 cm) are derived from measurements with the E-W Nançay interferometer and the E-W arm of the Medicina North Cross. It is shown that the lowest envelopes, which defined the radio quiet Sun, correspond to transits of extended coronal holes across the disk of the Sun.     

Center to limb variation of solar granulation

The density dependence of solar EUV line intensity ratios from Mg VIII, Si VII, S IX and Si IX ions have been used to determine electron densities in the quiet Sun and coronal holes. The line intensity values have been computed using a model atmosphere of Kopp and Orrall (1976) in order to emphasize the utility of the lines studied which could be compared with observational data that future missions might provide.     

Electron density from Mg VIII emission lines

Mg VIII emission line intensity ratio I (430.47)/I (436.62) has been studied in detail and is found to be an excellent candidate for diagnosing the quiet Sun and the coronal holes.     

Helium 10830 Å measurements of the Sun

Measurements of the Sun in the near-infrared He i 10830 Å absorption line were performed using the echelle spectrograph with a dispersion of 6.71 mÅ per pixel at the Vacuum Tower Telescope (German Solar Telescopes, Teide Observatory, Izaña, Tenerife, Spain) on May 26, 1993. These measurements were compared with full-disc soft X-ray images of the Sun (Japanese solar satellite Yohkoh), full-disc solar images in H (Big Bear Solar Observatory), full-disc solar images in the He i 10830 Å line (National Solar Observatory, Kitt Peak) and with full-disc microwave solar maps at 37 GHz (Metsähovi Radio Research Station). In the He 10830 Å line the Sun displays a limb darkening similar to that in the visible part of the spectrum. Active regions and H filaments show a strong absorption in the He 10830 Å line, whereas the absorption is weak in coronal holes.     

EIS/<Emphasis Type="Italic">Hinode</Emphasis> Observations of Doppler Flow Seen through the 40-Arcsec Wide-Slit

The Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (EIS) onboard Hinode is the first solar telescope to obtain wide-slit spectral images that can be used for detecting Doppler flows in transition region and coronal lines on the Sun and to relate them to their surrounding small-scale dynamics. We select EIS lines covering the temperature range 6×10⁴ to 2×10⁶ K that give spectrally pure images of the Sun with the 40-arcsec slit. In these images Doppler shifts are seen as horizontal brightenings. Inside the image it is difficult to distinguish shifts from horizontal structures but emission beyond the image edge can be unambiguously identified as a line shift in several lines separated from others on their blue or red side by more than the width of the spectrometer slit (40 pixels). In the blue wing of He ii, we find a large number of events with properties (size and lifetime) similar to the well-studied explosive events seen in the ultraviolet spectral range. Comparison with X-Ray Telescope (XRT) images shows many Doppler shift events at the footpoints of small X-ray loops. The most spectacular event observed showed a strong blue shift in the transition region and lower corona lines from a small X-ray spot that lasted less than 7 min. The emission appears to be near a cool coronal loop connecting an X-ray bright point to an adjacent region of quiet Sun. The width of the emission implies a line-of-sight velocity of 220 km s⁻¹. In addition, we show an example of an Fe xv shift with a velocity of about 120 km s⁻¹, coming from what looks like a narrow loop leg connecting a small X-ray brightening to a larger region of X-ray emission.     

Coronal Holes Versus Normal Quiet Sun Observed with SUMER

We present a preliminary analysis of spectral lines obtained with the SUMER instrument (Solar Ultraviolet Measurements of Emitted Radiation) onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), as observed during three observing campaigns. From the 70 observed spectral lines, we selected 12, representing 9 ions or atoms, in order to analyse line intensities, shifts and widths in polar coronal holes as well as in the normal quiet Sun. We find that coronal lines show a distinct blueshift in coronal holes relative to the quiet Sun at equal heliospheric angle, while there is no evidence for such a shift for lines formed at temperatures below 10⁵K. The widths of lines formed at temperatures above 3 – 10⁴K are slightly increased inside the coronal hole, but unaffected for lower temperatures. Intensity measurements clearly show the center-to-limb variation, as well as an intensity diminution inside the coronal hole for lines formed above approximately 10⁵K. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The anomalous intensities of helium lines in a coronal hole

Observations made at the quiet Sun-centre with the Coronal Diagnostic Spectrometer (CDS) and Solar Ultraviolet Measurements of Emitted Radiation (SUMER) instruments on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory ( SOHO ) have shown that the intensities of the resonance lines of He  i and He  ii are significantly larger than predicted by emission measure distributions found from other transition region lines. The intensities of the helium lines are observed to be lower in coronal holes than in the quiet Sun. Any theory proposed to account for the behaviour of the helium lines must explain the observations of both the quiet Sun and coronal holes. We use observations made with SOHO to find the physical conditions in a polar coronal hole. The electron pressure is found using the C  iii 1175-Å and N  iii 991.5-Å lines, as the C  iii line at 977.0 Å becomes optically thick in some regions at high latitudes. The mean electron pressure is a factor of ≃2 lower than that at the quiet Sun-centre. The mean coronal electron temperature is     . The helium lines are enhanced with respect to other transition region lines but by factors which are ≃ 30 per cent smaller than at the quiet Sun-centre. The mean ratios of the intensities of the He  i 537.0- and 584.3-Å lines and of the He  i and He  ii 303.8-Å lines vary little with the type of region studied. These ratios are compared with those predicted by models of the transition region, taking into account the radiative transfer in the helium lines. No significant variation is found in the relative abundances of carbon and silicon.     

Solar Si XI Line Ratios Observed by the Normal Incidence Spectrometer on SOHO CDS

New measurements of line intensity ratios in the Be-like ion Si xi are presented for observations of the quiet Sun, active regions, coronal holes and above-limb regions obtained using the Coronal Diagnostic Spectrometer on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. A model ion, constructed using the best available atomic data, is used to predict the line intensity ratios for a wide range of electron temperatures and densities. Comparisons of the theoretical ratios with the new intensity ratios as well as with those from previous solar observations and laboratory measurements are given. The usefulness of the ratios for electron temperature and density diagnostics, as well as for spectrometer calibration, is discussed.     

The Emission Heights of Transition Region Lines in an Equatorial Coronal Hole and the Surrounding Quiet Sun

Using the correlation between the radiance or Doppler velocity and the extrapolated magnetic field, we determined the emission heights of a set of solar transition region lines in an equatorial coronal hole and in the surrounding quiet Sun region. We found that for all of the six lower-transition-region lines, the emission height is about 4-5 Mm in the equatorial coronal hole, and around 2 Mm in the quiet Sun region. This result confirms the previous findings that plasma with different temperature can coexist at the same layer of transition region. In the quiet Sun region, the emission height of the upper-transition-region line Ne viii is almost the same that of the lower-transition-region line, but in the coronal hole, it is twice as high. This difference reveals that the outflow of Ne Ⅷ is a signature of solar wind in the coronal hole and is just a mass supply to the large loops in the quiet Sun.     

Area variation with temperature of supergranule network features in the solar transition zone

Areas of network emission features in C ii 1135, C iii 977, O iv 544 and O vi 1032 were measured in and out of coronal holes. In the quiet Sun these areas, on the average, showed a 20% increase between C ii and O vi. In the coronal holes there was no significant average variation, but a number of the features showed an interesting decrease in area at intermediate temperatures.     

Intensity oscillations at the feet of coronal holes

We investigate the regime of chromospheric oscillations at the bases of coronal holes and compare them with the oscillations in the quiet chromosphere outside coronal holes using time series of spectrograms taken at different times in eight quiet regions on the Sun. As the oscillation parameter being studied, we have chosen the central intensity of the chromospheric Ca II K and H and 849.8-nm lines. The intensity measurements at all spatial points (along the spectrograph slit) have been subjected to a standard Fourier analysis. For the identified areas of the networks, cells, and network boundaries, we have calculated the integrated oscillation powers in several frequency bands. For all frequency bands, the powers of the intensity oscillations at the formation level of the Ca II resonance doublet line cores have been found to be enhanced at the bases of coronal holes approximately by a factor of 1.5. For the “three-minute” band, this enhancement is more pronounced in the network than in the cell, while the opposite is true for the “five-minute” band. The power in the five-minute band is higher than that in the three-minute one both at the bases of coronal holes and outside them, but this ratio in the network for a coronal hole is higher (1.40 ± 0.25 and 1.30 ± 0.10). We interpret this fact and the fact that the power of the three-minute oscillations for nonmagnetic regions changes with height differently at the base of a coronal hole and outside it as an increase in the importance of magnetoacoustic portals at the chromospheric base of the coronal hole.     

O VI (λ = 1032 Å) profiles in and above an active region prominence,compared to quiet Sun center and limb profiles

O vi ( = 1032 Å) profiles have been measured in and above a filament at the limb, previously analyzed in H i, Mg ii, Ca ii resonance lines (Vial et al., 1979). They are compared to profiles measured at the quiet Sun center and at the quiet Sun limb.Absolute intensities are found to be about 1.55 times larger than above the quiet limb at the same height (3); at the top of the prominence (15 above the limb) one finds a maximum blue shift and a minimum line width. The inferred non-thermal velocity (29 km s^–1) is about the same as in cooler lines while the approaching line-of-sight velocity (8 km s^–1) is lower than in Ca ii lines.The O vi profile recorded 30 above the limb outside the filament is wider (FWHM = 0.33 Å). It can be interpreted as a coronal emission of O vi ions with a temperature of about 10⁶ K, and a non-thermal velocity (NTV) of 49 km s^–1. This NTV is twice the NTV of quiet Sun center O vi profiles. Lower NTV require higher temperatures and densities (as suggested by K-coronameter measurements). Computed emission measures for this high temperature regime agree with determinations from disk intensities of euv lines.     

The Lower Chromosphere in a Coronal Hole

We study the Ca ii K, H, and λ 849.8 nm line profiles in two regions of the quiet Sun, one being located in the extensive low-latitude coronal hole observed on 3 through 5 August 2003, and the other being located outside the coronal hole. Comparison of the profiles was carried out separately for cells and cell boundaries of the chromospheric network. Our principal result is that space- and time-averaged profiles of the central self-reversal in the coronal hole sites differ from those outside of the hole: Intensities of the K₃ and H₃ central depressions are increased in the cells but are unchanged in the network; the height of the K₂ peaks is reduced in the cells and particularly in the network; the central self-reversal asymmetry is intensified in the network. Distinctions appear at a high confidence level. Line wings as well as average characteristics of the infrared line remain practically unchanged. We discuss probable causes for this behavior of the lower chromosphere lines.     

Rotation of solar structures in the upper chromosphere. II. Time variations in the latitudinal distribution of the rotation of active regions and coronal holes

The time variations in the latitudinal distribution of the rotation of active regions and coronal holes are investigated. The synoptic maps obtained from observations in the He I 1083 nm line at Kitt Peak Observatory over almost three solar cycles are used as observational data. A Fourier analysis of the time series constructed from synoptic maps has yielded the following results. The rotation of active regions differs significantly from the rotation of coronal holes in all parameters: the set of the most significant rotation periods, their latitudinal distribution, and time variations. The rotation of active regions and coronal holes is characterized by variations from cycle to cycle, a time-varying north-south asymmetry. The power spectra for consecutive cycles of solar activity differ significantly for both epochs of high activity and minima. Analysis of the total power of the spectra within four selected intervals of periods from 21 to 33 days has shown that the total power is highest in the intervals of periods 24–27 and 27–30 days. This is valid for both active regions and coronal holes. The correlation between the total powers in the above intervals of periods changes noticeably with time. Long-lived or successively appearing active regions with rotation periods in the range 24–30 days are typical of the time of a sharp decrease in the total equivalent width of active regions. This includes not only the decline time of the 11-year cycles, but also the minima between recurrent activity maxima during one cycle. A predominance of long-lived coronal holes as their total equivalent width decreases is noticeable for coronal holes with rotation periods in the interval 30–33 days. All of the above results suggest that the rotation of solar structures is determined mainly by the subphotospheric sources of specific structures, not by the rotation of the main volumes of solar plasma of the quiet Sun.