Models for different sunspot umbrae

An empirical approach to interpret the time evolution of the high spatial resolution Ca ii K line is presented. We specify the physical parameters, such as electron temperature, hydrogen density, and velocity (microturbulent and systematic) as functions of height. The electron density is obtained from scaled non-LTE solutions for hydrogen ionization. The population indices, and thus the Ca ii source functions, for a 5-level Ca ii atom are computed by using the generalized Newton-Raphson method. K line profiles are then synthesized for different evolutionary stages and are compared with the observed ones. The explanation of the ‘peculiar’ type profile is also attempted.