Abstract
High resolution pictures (about 0″.3) of photospheric faculae near the solar limb have been obtained with the Pic du Midi 50 cm refractor; their granular structure then clearly appears. The microphotometric study of these facular granules shows that the ratio of their intensity to the photospheric intensity, I f/I ph (cosθ) reaches a maximum near cosθ = 0.3 and then decreases towards the limb. The values of this ratio have been corrected with a most likely spread function. Then a temperature model of a facular granule is obtained: with respect to the neighbouring photosphere, this granule appears as a photospheric ‘hot cloud’ which does not extend high in the solar atmosphere (thickness 100 km above τ5000 = 1). The temperature excess is 750K at maximum. This hot region is located over a layer which is cooler than the normal photosphere at the same level. Another hot region might extend above the photospheric ‘hot cloud’, possibly up to the chromosphere. This photospheric facula model which is confined to the lower photosphere seems to indicate that this phenomenon is different from the photospheric network which is visible up to the lower chromosphere.
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Muller, R. A model of photospheric faculae deduced from white light high resolution pictures. Sol Phys 45, 105–114 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00152221
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00152221