Physical State of the Photosphere at the Onset Phase of a Two-Ribbon Solar Flare

We study the physical state of the photosphere at about 30 minutes before and at the onset of a 2N/M2 two-ribbon solar flare. Semiempirical photospheric models are obtained for two Hα-kernels with the help of the SIR inversion code described by Ruiz Cobo and del Toro Iniesta (Astrophys. J. 398, 375, 1992). The models derived from the inversion reproduce spectral observations in seven Fraunhofer lines. The inferred models show variations in all photospheric parameters both before and at the onset of the flare relative to the quiet-Sun model. The temperature enhancement in the upper photospheric layers is found in the atmospheres in both kernels. The dynamical structure in the models reveals the variations at the onset of the flare relative to the preflaring ones. The inferred atmospheres show some difference in the thermodynamical parameters of two kernels.     

The photospheric abundance of iron

The center-to-limb variation of equivalent widths of 198 Fei lines in the spectral region 5500 to 7000 Å was studied with five photospheric models. The gf-values of Corliss and Warner (1964) were used in the analysis. The photospheric iron abundance was found to vary with excitation potential. This can be explained by a systematic error in the gf-values of high excitation lines and an error of 250 to 500K in the temperature of the arcs used for measuring the gf-values. Departures from LTE in the solar Fei lines are also a possibility. The adopted photospheric abundance of iron, log(N _Fe/N _H) is - 5.2.     

Study of nonstationarity of the atmosphere of <Emphasis Type="Italic">κ</Emphasis> Cas. I. Variability of profiles of photospheric and He I wind lines

Temporal variations of radial velocities and line profiles in the spectrum of the supergiant κ Cas were investigated. Variability of radial velocities and profiles of photospheric lines Si III, OII, He I, H₁₀–Hδ and wind lines He I λ 5875, 6678 Å ismainly caused by non-radial pulsations. For photospheric lines quasisinusoidal variabilities of the radial velocity were found. Temporal variability of radial velocity of the wind lines He I λ 5875, 6678 A? differ from each other and from the photospheric lines. Gamma velocities and amplitudes of radial velocity variability were determined. The amplitude of variability and the velocity of expansion increase from lower to upper layers of the atmosphere. Emission components are superimposed on the line profiles at positions about ?135 ± 10.0, ?20 ± 20 and 135 ± 10.0 kms^?1 respectively. They are more obvious in the wind line profiles, although, there are signs of emissions also in the photospheric lines. Such a character of variability of all the lines in the κ Cas spectrum confirms its Be nature.     

A class of force-free magnetic fields for modeling pre-flare coronal magnetic configurations

Three-dimensional, quasi-static evolutions of coronal magnetic fields driven by photospheric flux emergence are modeled by a class of analytic force-free magnetic fields. Our models relate commonly observed photospheric magnetic phenomena, such as the formation and growth of sunspots, the emergence of an X-type separator, and the collision and merging of sunspots, to the three-dimensional magnetic fields in the corona above. By tracking the evolution in terms of a continuous sequence of force-free states, we show that flux emergence and submergence along magnetic neutral lines in the photosphere are essential processes in all these photospheric phenomena. The analytic solutions we present have a parametric regime within which the magnetic energy attained by an evolving force-free field may be of the order of 10³⁰ ergs to several 10³¹ ergs, depending on the magnetic environment into which an emerging flux intrudes. The commonly used indicators of magnetic shear in magnetogram interpretation are discussed in terms of field connectivity in our models. It is demonstrated that the crossing angle of the photospheric transverse magnetic field with the neutral line may not be a reliable indicator of the magnetic shear in the coronal field above, due to the complexity of three-dimensionality. The poorly understood constraint of magnetic-helicity conservation on the availability of magnetic free energy for a flare is briefly discussed.The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.     

Interpretation of the veiling of the photospheric spectrum for T Tauri stars in terms of an accretion model

The problem on heating the atmospheres of T Tauri stars by radiation from an accretion shock has been solved. The structure and radiation spectrum of the emerging so-called hot spot have been calculated in the LTE approximation. The emission not only in continuum but also in lines has been taken into account for the first time when calculating the spot spectrum. Comparison with observations has shown that the strongest of these lines manifest themselves as narrow components of helium and metal emission lines, while the weaker ones decrease significantly the depth of photospheric absorption lines, although until now, this effect has been thought to be due to the emission continuum alone. The veiling by lines changes the depth of different photospheric lines to a very different degree even within a narrow spectral range. Therefore, the nonmonotonic wavelength dependence of the degree of veiling r found for some CTTS does not suggest a nontrivial spectral energy distribution of the veiling continuum. In general, it makes sense to specify the degree of veiling r only by providing the set of photospheric lines from which this quantity was determined. We show that taking into account the contribution of lines to the veiling of the photospheric spectrum can cause the existing estimates of the accretion rate onto T Tauri stars to decrease by several times, with this being also true for stars with a comparatively weakly veiled spectrum. Neglecting the contribution of lines to the veiling can also lead to appreciable errors in determining the effective temperature, interstellar extinction, radial velocity, and v sin i.     

The photospheric network

Spectroheliograms, obtained in certain Fraunhofer lines with the 82-cm solar image at the Kitt Peak National Observatory, show a bright photospheric network having the following properties:

1. It resembles, but does not coincide with, the chromospheric network, the structure of the photospheric network being finer and more delicate than the relatively coarse structure of the chromospheric network.
2. It is exactly cospatial with the network of non-sunspot photospheric magnetic fields.
3. Its visibility in a given photospheric Fraunhofer line is primarily dependent on the states of ionization and excitation from which the line is formed and secondarily dependent on the Zeemansensitivity of the line-being most visible in low-excitation lines of neutral atoms and least visible in high-excitation lines of singly ionized atoms.

We conclude that these magnetic regions of the solar atmosphere are a few hundred degrees hotter than their surroundings, and that they are visible in white light near the limb as photospheric faculae.     

On the center-to-limb variation of infrared photospheric carbon lines and the infrared continuum intensity around 1.75 μ M

The center-to-limb variation (CLV) of several infrared carbon lines and the infrared continuum intensity around 1.75 μm were measured. The results were compared with theoretical predictions using four different photospheric models. It was found that the model by Holweger and Müller (1974) describes the observations best.     

A facular model based on the wings of the Ca ii lines

We develop a relatively simple procedure for deriving models of upper photospheric regions based on the damping wings of the Ca ii resonance and infrared triplet lines. The procedure is used to derive a facular model but can also be applied to late-type stars. We compare our model to that of Chapman.Visiting Astronomer at Kitt Peak National Observatory, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under contract with the National Science Foundation.Staff Member, Laboratory Astrophysics Division, National Bureau of Standards.     

Spectropolarimetric investigation of an Ellerman bomb: 2. Photospheric models

Semiempirical models of the photosphere of an Ellerman bomb in the NOAA 11024 active region were obtained using profiles of Stokes parameters I, Q, U, and V of photospheric lines. Spectropolarimetric observations were conducted using the French–Italian THEMIS telescope (Tenerife, Spain). The SIR inversion code [28] was used in the modeling. The models have two components: a magnetic flux tube and nonmagnetic surroundings. The dependences of temperature, magnetic field strength, inclination of the magnetic field vector, and line-of-sight velocity in the tube on the optical depth were obtained. The models demonstrate that the thermodynamic parameters of the Ellerman bomb photosphere differ considerably from those of the quiet photosphere. The temperature in the tube model varied nonmonotonically with height and deviated by up to 700–900 K from its values for the quiet photosphere. Downflows were observed in the lower and the upper photospheric layers. The line-of-sight velocity in the upper layers of the photosphere was as high as 17 km/s. The magnetic field strength in the models varied from 0.1–0.13 T in the lower photospheric layers to 0.04–0.07 T in the upper ones. The physical state of the photosphere did change in the course of observations.     

A Comparison Between Nonlinear Force-Free Field and Potential Field Models Using Full-Disk SDO/HMI Magnetogram

Measurements of magnetic fields and electric currents in the pre-eruptive corona are crucial to the study of solar eruptive phenomena, like flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). However, spectro-polarimetric measurements of certain photospheric lines permit a determination of the vector magnetic field only at the photosphere. Therefore, there is considerable interest in accurate modeling of the solar coronal magnetic field using photospheric vector magnetograms as boundary data. In this work, we model the coronal magnetic field above multiple active regions with the help of a potential field and a nonlinear force-free field (NLFFF) extrapolation code over the full solar disk using Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (SDO/HMI) data as boundary conditions. We compare projections of the resulting magnetic field lines with full-disk coronal images from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (SDO/AIA) for both models. This study has found that the NLFFF model reconstructs the magnetic configuration closer to observation than the potential field model for full-disk magnetic field extrapolation. We conclude that many of the trans-equatorial loops connecting the two solar hemispheres are current-free.     

Solar rotation: The photospheric height gradient

For selected pairs of Fraunhofer lines the height of formation has been calculated corresponding to that portion of the profile intercepted by the magnetograph exit slits. A photospheric height discrimination of 150–300 km is realized. In 1971 simultaneous measurements of equatorial angular velocity from spectroscopic displacements of these line pairs indicate no height gradient in excess of 1%.The disturbing influence of telluric line blends is analyzed. It is proposed that undetected telluric lines could account, at least in part, for the photospheric height gradient which has been found in a number of photographic investigations.Operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, under contract with the National Science Foundation.     

Photospheric Injection of Magnetic Helicity: Connectivity-Based Flux Density Method

Magnetic helicity quantifies the degree to which the magnetic field in a volume is globally sheared and/or twisted. This quantity is believed to play a key role in solar activity due to its conservation property. Helicity is continuously injected into the corona during the evolution of active regions (ARs). To better understand and quantify the role of magnetic helicity in solar activity, the distribution of magnetic helicity flux in ARs needs to be studied. The helicity distribution can be computed from the temporal evolution of photospheric magnetograms of ARs such as the ones provided by SDO/HMI and Hinode/SOT. Most recent analyses of photospheric helicity flux derived a proxy to the helicity-flux density based on the relative rotation rate of photospheric magnetic footpoints. Although this proxy allows a good estimate of the photospheric helicity flux, it is still not a true helicity flux density because it does not take into account the connectivity of the magnetic field lines. For the first time, we implement a helicity density that takes this connectivity into account. To use it for future observational studies, we tested the method and its precision on several types of models involving different patterns of helicity injection. We also tested it on more complex configurations – from magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulations – containing quasi-separatrix layers. We demonstrate that this connectivity-based proxy is best-suited to map the true distribution of photospheric helicity injection.     

The center-limb behavior of solar molecular lines

The center-limb behavior of C₂, CH, CN, CO, and MgH lines have been analyzed using five photospheric models. A three-stream model developed by G. Elste gave the most satisfactory results, providing evidence for the existence of inhomogeneities in the photospheric layers - 2.5 log 5000 -0.5.     

Velocity and Temperature Response Functions of 77 Near-Infrared (800 – 1400 nm) Photospheric Lines – I

We present a new list of solar photospheric lines in the near-infrared (NIR) region obtained by synthesis under local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) approximation. We give novel velocity and temperature response functions (RFs) for 77 lines over the spectral range 800 – 1400 nm. Using these RFs, we are able to obtain for each line the core formation height and the range of atmospheric layers where thermodynamic perturbations are dominant. Moreover, by using the depth-integrated RFs, we give an indication of the dependence on the wavelength of the RFs and quantify their sensitivity to thermodynamic variations. The NIR region represents a significant source of interest for spectroscopic and polarimetric studies. Indeed, at these wavelengths we explore the deeper photospheric layers, and the Zeeman splitting is larger than in the visible range.     

High resolution mapping of the magnetic field of the solar corona

High resolution KPNO magnetograph measurements of the line-of-sight component of the photospheric magnetic field over the entire dynamic range from 0 to 4000 gauss are used as the basic data for a new analysis of the photospheric and coronal magnetic field distributions. The daily magnetograph measurements collected over a solar rotation are averaged onto a 180 × 360 synoptic grid of equal-area elements. With the assumption that there are no electric currents above the photospheric level of measurement, a unique solution is determined for the global solar magnetic field. Because the solution is in terms of an expansion in spherical harmonics to principal index n = 90, the global photospheric magnetic energy distribution can be analyzed in terms of contributions of different scale-size and geometric pattern. This latter procedure is of value (1) in guiding solar dynamo theories, (2) in monitoring the persistence of the photospheric field pattern and its components, (3) in comparing synoptic magnetic data of different observatories, and (4) in estimating data quality. Different types of maps for the coronal magnetic field are constructed (1) to show the strong field at different resolutions, (2) to trace the field lines which open into interplanetary space and to locate their photospheric origins, and (3) to map in detail coronal regions above (specified) limited photospheric areas.The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science foundation.Kitt Peak National Observatory is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. Under contract with the National Science Foundation.     

Spectral Study of Ellerman Bombs. Photosphere

The results of analysis of spectral observations of two Ellerman bombs (EB-1 and EB-2), which were formed and have evolved in the area of emerging magnetic flux in active region (AR) NOAA 11024, are presented. Spectral data with high spatial and temporal (approximately 3 s) resolution were obtained using the THEMIS French–Italian solar telescope on July 4, 2009. The observation duration was 20 min. The spectral region of λ ≈ 630 nm with photospheric lines forming in a wide altitude range (neutral iron lines Fe I λ 630.15, 630.25, and 630.35 nm and titanium line Ti I λ 630.38 nm) was examined. The brightness of EB-1 decreased in the process of observations, while the brightness of EB-2 increased. The profiles of metal lines determined at different stages of EBs evolution were asymmetric. This asymmetry was more pronounced in lines that had formed in the lower photospheric layers and often had profiles with several components. The half-width of profiles increased with a reduction in their central depth. The variation of central intensities of Fraunhofer lines in the spectra of EBs and their vicinity at different stages of EB evolution was analyzed. The EBs formed in intergranular lanes. An increase in the core intensity of all the studied photospheric lines was correlated spatially with an increase in the wings intensity of the H_α line. Brightness variations at all photospheric levels were of an oscillatory nature with an interval of 1–5 min. The observed temporal variations of Fraunhofer line intensities in the spectra of the studied AR section suggest that the emergence of the new magnetic flux induced consecutive magnetic reconnections in the EB-1 region, the excitation propagated along a magnetic loop and initiated the formation of EB-2, and the two bombs then evolved as a physically connected pair.     

Preliminary Results of Optical Solar Flare Spectra Studies Using a 40-Channel Densitometer

Multi-channel CCD receivers are available for solar spectral research in the Astronomical Observatory of Shevchenko University of Kiev. The observational material considered here are 24 echelle spectrograms of the flare of July 15, 1981 and certain other disk and limb flares. Some temporal aspects of flare development are discussed, as well as properties of metal lines and the structure of the flare region. Disk and limb flare photometry indicate the full spatial coincidence of the emission volumes for all emission lines. No signs of altitude stratification for the lines of H and K Call, hydrogen, and other metals are detected. Metal flare emission is revealed in the cores of Fraunhofer lines, providing that a compact emission source is present in the active region and that broad wings of H and K CaII and hydrogen have formed. No broad wings are observed for metal lines. Two types of lower-intensity strips in the photospheric emission spectrum are detected; the first is the result of the lower temperature in sunspots, while the second is due to the weakening of photospheric radiation after it passes through the flare volume. No new spectral lines are observed in the spectrum of this second type of strip, which may be associated with a condensed layer of relatively cold plasma at the chromospheric level. Four components are always spatially coincident in the spectrum: (1) a compact source of higher intensity with broadened hydrogen and H and K Call line wings; (2) higher intensity in metal lines, but without broadened wings; (3) emission or absorption in helium lines; (4) a lower-intensity strip of photospheric emission due to its weakening after it passes through the flare volume.     

Magnetic Energy Storage and Current Density Distributions for Different Force-Free Models

In the last decades, force-free-field modelling has been used extensively to describe the coronal magnetic field and to better understand the physics of solar eruptions at different scales. Especially the evolution of active regions has been studied by successive equilibria in which each computed magnetic configuration is subject to an evolving photospheric distribution of magnetic field and/or electric-current density. This technique of successive equilibria has been successful in describing the rate of change of the energetics for observed active regions. Nevertheless the change in magnetic configuration due to the increase/decrease of electric current for different force-free models (potential, linear and nonlinear force-free fields) has never been studied in detail before. Here we focus especially on the evolution of the free magnetic energy, the location of the excess of energy, and the distribution of electric currents in the corona. For this purpose, we use an idealised active region characterised by four main polarities and a satellite polarity, allowing us to specify a complex topology and sheared arcades to the coronal magnetic field but no twisted flux bundles. We investigate the changes in the geometry and connectivity of field lines, the magnetic energy and current-density content as well as the evolution of null points. Increasing the photospheric current density in the magnetic configuration does not dramatically change the energy-storage processes within the active region even if the magnetic topology is slightly modified. We conclude that for reasonable values of the photospheric current density (the force-free parameter α<0.25 Mm⁻¹), the magnetic configurations studied do change but not dramatically: i) the original null point stays nearly at the same location, ii) the field-line geometry and connectivity are slightly modified, iii) even if the free magnetic energy is significantly increased, the energy storage happens at the same location. This extensive study of different force-free models for a simple magnetic configuration shows that some topological elements of an observed active region, such as null points, can be reproduced with confidence only by considering the potential-field approximation. This study is a preliminary work aiming at understanding the effects of electric currents generated by characteristic photospheric motions on the structure and evolution of the coronal magnetic field.     

The Mn <Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">I</Emphasis> 539.47 nm Line Variation in Solar Active Regions

It is a well-established fact that the Mn I 539.47 nm line exhibits significant cycle dependence similar to lines arising in the chromosphere which are affected by non-thermal heating in the chromospheric plages. Among these lines the case of the Mn I 539.47 nm line seems unique. It is of photospheric origin on the basis of theoretical calculations but its cyclic dependence hints at a chromospheric nature. The present work provides further evidence to both connections. The line exhibits asymmetry features and a center-to-limb variation as though influenced by the photospheric granulation. On the other hand an enhancement of the central intensity has been detected in a well identifiable Ca plage area. The line seems to be a promising candidate as an irradiance variation indicator.     

Solar cycle variation of large-scale coronal structures

A green line intensity variation is associated with the interplanetary and photospheric magnetic sector structure. This effect depends on the solar cycle and occurs with the same amplitude in the latitude range 60° N–60° S. Extended longitudinal coronal structures are suggested, which indicate the existence of closed magnetic field lines over the neutral line, separating adjacent regions of opposite polarities on the photospheric surface.Supported by an ESRO/NASA fellowhip.On leave from Torino University, Italy; now at Istituto di Fisica, Universita di Torino, Italy.