Solar CA II K resonance line polarization

The linear polarization profiles formed by resonance scattering are calculated for the Ca II K line using various empirical solar atmosphere models in order to assess the potential value of resonance polarization observations for solar atmosphere diagnostics. In particular, intensity and polarization profiles are shown for three solar models: HSRA (Ginerich et al., 1971) and VALA and VALC (Vernazza et al., 1981). It is found that there are significant differences between the polarization profiles for the three models, especially near the core and wing maxima. These differences are encouraging evidence that linear polarization data may be valuable in delineating temperature and density models of the solar atmosphere.