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The photospheric network

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Abstract

Spectroheliograms, obtained in certain Fraunhofer lines with the 82-cm solar image at the Kitt Peak National Observatory, show a bright photospheric network having the following properties:

  1. (1)

    It resembles, but does not coincide with, the chromospheric network, the structure of the photospheric network being finer and more delicate than the relatively coarse structure of the chromospheric network.

  2. (2)

    It is exactly cospatial with the network of non-sunspot photospheric magnetic fields.

  3. (3)

    Its visibility in a given photospheric Fraunhofer line is primarily dependent on the states of ionization and excitation from which the line is formed and secondarily dependent on the Zeemansensitivity of the line-being most visible in low-excitation lines of neutral atoms and least visible in high-excitation lines of singly ionized atoms.

We conclude that these magnetic regions of the solar atmosphere are a few hundred degrees hotter than their surroundings, and that they are visible in white light near the limb as photospheric faculae.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Kitt Peak National Observatory, Tucson, Ariz., U.S.A.

    G. A. Chapman

  2. Kitt Peak National Observatory, Tucson, Ariz., U.S.A.

    N. R. Sheeley Jr.

Authors
  1. G. A. Chapman
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  2. N. R. Sheeley Jr.
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Additional information

Kitt Peak National Observatory Contribution No. 372.

Operated by The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under contract with the National Science Foundation.

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Chapman, G.A., Sheeley, N.R. The photospheric network. Sol Phys 5, 442–461 (1968). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00147012

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00147012

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