The dichotomy between CO absorption and CA II emissions in the sun and stars - an indirect diagnostic for gas disturbed by magnetic fields?
Abstract
It has been found that the cores of the strongest of the CO transitions in the solar disk do not exhibit limb-brightening, but continue to darken toward the limb. The results of research are reviewed which show that, to the extent that the hot regions of the solar atmosphere are manifestations of magnetic 'activity' and the cool zones represent the undisturbed state of the gas, simultaneous cospatial measurements of the 4.7 micron absorption bands of CO and 0.4 micron emission cores of the H and K lines of Ca(+) can be used to diagnose indirectly the presence and scale of such activity on the solar surface. The finding of a similar dichotomy between the absorptions of the fundamental CO bands in the red giant Arcturus and chromospheric models based on the prominent emission reversals of the Ca II lines is also discussed.
- Publication:
-
Highlights of Astronomy
- Pub Date:
- 1986
- Bibcode:
- 1986HiA.....7..425A
- Keywords:
-
- Calcium;
- Carbon Monoxide;
- Plasma Diagnostics;
- Red Giant Stars;
- Stellar Magnetic Fields;
- Stellar Spectra;
- Sun;
- Chromosphere;
- Limb Darkening;
- Line Spectra;
- Stellar Activity;
- Stellar Atmospheres;
- Astrophysics