Abstract
The cooling effect of emission in the spectral lines, which dominates over continuous emission in the chromosphere and becomes important first around the temperature minimum, modifies greatly the radiative relaxation timet r in the solar atmosphere. This rises from low photospheric values to a maximum of ∼8 min just aboveT min, falls in the low chromosphere to ∼1.5 min because of line emission, but rises again to ∼6 min atT ∼ 7000–8400 K in the chromosphere where hydrogen ionization increases the specific heat.
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Giovanelli, R.G. The radiative relaxation time in the chromosphere. Sol Phys 59, 293–311 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00951835
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00951835