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Solar spectroscopy
Solar spectroscopy
Dr Nicolas Labrosse
School of Physics and Astronomy
University of Glasgow
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Solar spectroscopy
26/01/2012 Dr Nicolas Labrosse - Talk to Renfrewshire Astronomical Society 2
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Solar spectroscopy
Important dates
• Newton (1704) observed the dispersion of light by a prism
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Solar spectroscopy
Important dates
• Herschel (1800) detects infrared radiation using thermometers
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Solar spectroscopy
Important dates
• Wollaston (1802) notices dark lines in the spectrum of the Sun
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Solar spectroscopy
Important dates
• Fraunhofer (1817) describes the dark lines in Sun’s spectrum:
spectroscopy is born!
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Solar spectroscopy
Important dates
• Solar chemical composition in the 1860s
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map of the solar spectrum published
in 1863 by Kirchhoff, showing the
identification of a large number of
spectral lines with various chemical
elements
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Solar spectroscopy
Important dates
• Lockyer (1868) revealed the presence of an unknown element: helium
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Solar spectroscopy
Important dates
• The 1879 eclipse revealed a coronal green line at 530.3 nm
– Origin unknown for 50 years: was this “coronium”?
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Solar spectroscopy
Important dates
• 1939: Edlén showed this line is emitted by highly ionised iron (Fe XIV,
which has lost 13 electrons)
– Corresponding to
temperature over
1 million K!
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Solar spectroscopy
High resolution solar spectrum (type G2)
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400 nm
700 nm
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Solar spectroscopy
High resolution spectrum of Procyon (type F5)
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400 nm
700 nm
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Solar spectroscopy
High resolution spectrum of Arcturus (type K1)
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400 nm
700 nm
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Solar spectroscopy
Spectral lines
• Lines characterised by intensity, position, and width
• In solar spectroscopy, width affected by (among others)
– Instrumental profile
– Temperature
– Collisions
– Unresolved motions
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Solar spectroscopy
Spectroscopic instruments
• Needed to obtain physical parameters, such as
– Temperature
– Magnetic field
– Flow speed
• Measurements are multi-dimensional:
– Two spatial dimensions
– Wavelength
– Time
• At present, detectors only record 2 dimensions at a time.
– Filter instruments record 2D images at a fixed wavelength
– Slit spectrographs record 1 spatial dimension and a certain wavelength
range.
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Solar spectroscopy
What do we know?
The Sun is a huge ball of plasma – a gas which is not
neutral but contains free electric charges
– Although one speaks of the solar surface, the Sun has neither
solid or liquid matter anywhere inside it.
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Solar spectroscopy
What do we know? • Constitution
– Sun’s energy output comes from nuclear reactions at centre
– Energy transported outwards through radiative zone then convective zone
– 70% hydrogen, 28% helium (by mass)
• Photosphere
– Temperature ~ 5800 K
– Sunspots
• Chromosphere
– Temperature ~ 20 000 K
• Corona
– Temperature ~ 1 million K (!!!)
– Visible only during solar eclipses with the unaided eye
– Holes
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Solar spectroscopy
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Courtesy G. Doschek
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Solar spectroscopy
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Courtesy G. Doschek
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Solar spectroscopy
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Courtesy G. Doschek
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Solar spectroscopy
26/01/2012 Dr Nicolas Labrosse - Talk to Renfrewshire Astronomical Society 21 Courtesy H. Peter
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Solar spectroscopy
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Solar spectroscopy
Multi-wavelength view of the solar atmosphere
(SDO/AIA)
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Solar spectroscopy
X-ray and EUV spectroscopy
• Visible to ~1900 Å: Dominated by the continuum, mostly absorption lines
• 1700 – 1100 Å: The photosphere, chromosphere, lower transition region. A
few coronal lines for above the limb (no coronal disk observations)
– Temperatures from 10 000 K to about 250 000 K
• 1100 Å – 500 Å: the lower and upper transition region but limited coronal
access for disk observations, some forbidden lines for flares, e.g., Fe XVII,
Fe XVIII, Fe XIX, Fe XXII
– Temperatures from 250 000 K up to about 1 million K
• 500 Å – 170 A: the corona and flares (some transition region lines)
– Temperatures from about 800 000 K up to about 20 million K
• Below 170 Å : flare allowed lines of Fe XVIII through Fe XXIII between about
90 Å and 140 Å.
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Solar spectroscopy
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Solar spectroscopy
Line intensity and width (Hinode/EIS obervations)
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Solar spectroscopy
Hinode/EIS observations of solar flares
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Data from a major solar flare that occurred near Sun center on 18 February 2011.
The strong signal at 192.0 Å shows that the temperature in the flare has reached
15 million degrees!
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Solar spectroscopy
Summary
• Solar spectroscopy tells us how the solar atmosphere is
structured...
• ... and points to what we need to work on in the future
– Solve the puzzle of the hot corona
– Identify mechanisms behind energy transport, bulk flows, particle
acceleration, ...
• A rich discipline relying on complex quantum mechanics
calculations to predict the spectra emitted by atoms, ions,
and molecules
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Solar spectroscopy
Additional information and resources
• K. M. Harrison, "Astronomical Spectroscopy for
Amateurs". Patrick Moore's Practical Astronomy Series.
Springer, 2011. ISBN 9781441972385
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