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Spectral observations of spicules at two heights in the solar chromosphere

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Abstract

An observational program at the Sacramento Peak Observatory in 1965 provided high-dispersion spectra of the solar chromosphere in several spectral regions simultaneously. These regions included various combinations of the spectral lines Hα, Hβ and Hɛ, the D3-line of Hei, the infrared triplet of Oi, and the H- and K-lines and the infrared triplet of Caii. With the use of an image slicer the observations were made simultaneously at two heights in the solar chromosphere separated by several thousand kilometers. From these data we draw the following conclusions:

  1. (a)

    Emission of different lines arises in the same chromospheric features. The intensity ratio of lines of different elements varies significantly from spicule to spicule. For the H- and K-lines of ionized calcium, this ratio remains constant, independent of wavelength throughout the line, overall intensity, and height in the chromosphere. Two rare-earth lines in the wing of the H-line show no spicular structure at all.

  2. (b)

    The line-of-sight velocities of many features reverse as a function of time, although most spicules show velocities in only one direction. The simultaneous spectra at two heights show most spicules to have the same line-of-sight velocity at both. There may be an additional class of features, mostly rapidly moving, whose members have line-of-sight velocities that increase with height. These features comprise perhaps 10% of the total. Velocity changes occur simultaneously, to within 20 sec, at two heights separated by 1800 km, indicating velocities of propagation of hundreds of km/sec. The velocity field of individual features is often quite complicated; many spectral features are inclined to the direction of dispersion, implying that differential mass motions are present.

  3. (c)

    The existence of anomalously broad H and K profiles is real. Even with high dispersion and the best seeing, such profiles are not resolved into smaller features. The central reversal in K, H and Hα appears to remain unshifted when the wings are displaced in wavelength, indicating that the reversal is non-spicular.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Harvard College Observatory, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.

    Jay M. Pasachoff

  2. Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.

    Robert W. Noyes

  3. Sacramento Peak Observatory, Sunspot, N.M., U.S.A.

    Jacques M. Beckers

Authors
  1. Jay M. Pasachoff
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  2. Robert W. Noyes
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  3. Jacques M. Beckers
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Pasachoff, J.M., Noyes, R.W. & Beckers, J.M. Spectral observations of spicules at two heights in the solar chromosphere. Sol Phys 5, 131–158 (1968). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00147962

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00147962

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