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The hydrogen balmer lines and the structure of the quiet solar chromosphere

I: Observations at the limb

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Abstract

Spectra of Hα, Hβ and Hδ have been taken under good seeing conditions with the vacuum tower telescope of Sacramento Peak Observatory. Intensity curves are given at various wavelengths in these lines to permit further comparison with a theoretical model. Moreover, considering in each case the range of height in which the lines are almost optically thin and using a few approximations, the following results are derived: between 2000 and 6000 km above the limb the average thermal + turbulent velocity of the atoms is found to increase from 20 km s−1 to 30 km s−1 and the mean number of hydrogen atoms per cm3 in level 2 is given by

$$\log n_2 {\text{ = }}4.5{\text{ }} - {\text{ 0}}{\text{.00056(}}z - 2000)$$

z being the altitude above the limb in km. For line profile computations a new interpolation formula is presented; it gives good profiles with a small number of scans, saving microphotometer time.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sacramento Peak Observatory, AFCRL, Sunspot, N.M., U.S.A.

    Pierre Mein & Nicole Mein

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  1. Pierre Mein
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  2. Nicole Mein
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On leave from Observatoire de Meudon, 92190 Meudon, France.

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Mein, P., Mein, N. The hydrogen balmer lines and the structure of the quiet solar chromosphere. Sol Phys 40, 317–328 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00162378

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00162378

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