Outreach activities during the 2006 total solar eclipse sponsored by the International Heliophysical Year

The International Heliophysical Year (IHY) is an international program of scientific research to advance our understanding of the physical processes that govern the Sun, Earth and heliosphere. It has a strong educational component, linking research and education. Here, we describe the outreach activities during the 2006 total solar eclipse sponsored by IHY.     

太阳光谱线轮廓在日面上的变化和宁静太阳大气模型

本文利用在美国基特峰国家天文台观测得到的氢和电离钙多条谱线轮廓,以及PANDORA大气模型计算程序,对宁静太阳VAL-C'大气模型进行了诊断。文中首先讨论了模型大气中不同层次的辐射特性,着重指出H巴尔末谱线同Call共振线和红外线的源函数具有与温度不同的耦合关系。其次,通过计算得到了各条谱线在日面不同点的出射轮廓,并将其同观测轮廓相比较,存在的系统差别有:(1)Hβ和λ8498红外线线心的剩余强度较观测值高,而CaIIH和K线线翼的剩余强度则明显比观测值低;(2)Hβ及caII各条谱线在△λ=0.5?处的剩余强度值的临边增大系数较观测值大。除上所述及某些观测误差以外,计算值同观测值符合得较好。最后,文章分析了导致计算和观测不符的可能原因,并进而提出了对VAL-C'模型改进的意见。      

Hierarchy of spatial scales in UV prominences

Ultraviolet spectra of a quiescent prominence observed with theHigh Resolution Telescope and Spectrograph (HRTS) are analyzed. Different techniques lead to greatly different spatial scales for the prominence structures. The UV spectra show strong variations in intensity and Doppler shift on scales larger than 1700 km. Spectroscopic diagnostics employing line intensity ratios indicate the existence of scales between 400 m to some hundred kilometers. We attempt to interpret various aspects of the prominence intensities and velocities with a multiple thread model.     

Fine scale temporal structures in solar hard X-ray bursts observed by PHEBUS

We report here on preliminary results of a systematic study of fast temporal fluctuations in impulsive and extended solar X-ray bursts observed by PHEBUS at energies around 100 keV. Subsecond timescales are quite common in the impulsive events and are not observed in extended ones.     

Observational evidence for non-equilibrium ionization in the solar corona

We investigate whether temperature sensitive EUV line ratios can be used as observational signatures for the presence of non-equilibrium ionization in transition region plasma. We compute the total intensity of some EUV lines of carbon and oxygen expected from coronal loop models with a steady-state flow and which are known to have significant departures from ionization equilibrium, selecting lines whose intensity ratios are useful for deducing the electron temperature in the coronal plasma. We calculate the intensity ratios with and without the approximation of ionization equilibrium, in order to determine the effects of any deviations from equilibrium on the numerical values of the line ratios examined.     

Manifestation of magnetic reconnection in coronal streamer current sheets

We investigate the possibility of observing the effects of magnetic reconnection inside a current sheet forming in a coronal streamer in the extended corona. In particular we study the possibility to observe with the UVCS of SOHO the excitation of the tearing instability in the current sheet.     

Outflow Velocities at the Base of a Polar Coronal Hole During the 1998 Total Eclipse

Polar coronal holes represent the most convincing site from which the high-speed solar wind originates. Here we report high-accuracy Doppler shifts measured in the O VI (1037.6 Å) line obtained by SUMER on SOHO inside an interplume region within the south polar coronal hole. We infer limits on the outflow velocity and draw hints about the flow geometry.     

The Composition of the Solar Wind in Polar Coronal Holes

The solar wind charge state and elemental compositions have been measured with the Solar Wind Ion Composition Spectrometers (SWICS) on Ulysses and ACE for a combined period of about 25 years. This most extensive data set includes all varieties of solar wind flows and extends over more than one solar cycle. With SWICS the abundances of all charge states of He, C, N, O, Ne, Mg, Si, S, Ar and Fe can be reliably determined (when averaged over sufficiently long time periods) under any solar wind flow conditions. Here we report on results of our detailed analysis of the elemental composition and ionization states of the most unbiased solar wind from the polar coronal holes during solar minimum in 1994–1996, which includes new values for the abundance S, Ca and Ar and a more accurate determination of the ²⁰Ne abundance. We find that in the solar minimum polar coronal hole solar wind the average freezing-in temperature is ∼1.1×10⁶ K, increasing slightly with the mass of the ion. Using an extrapolation method we derive photospheric abundances from solar wind composition measurements. We suggest that our solar-wind-derived values should be used for the photospheric ratios of Ne/Fe=1.26±0.28 and Ar/Fe=0.030±0.007.     

Johannes Geiss’ Investigations of Solar, Heliospheric and Interstellar Matter

Johannes Geiss is a world leader and foremost expert on measurements and interpretation of the composition of matter that reveals the history, present state, and future of astronomical objects. With his Swiss team he was first to measure the composition of the noble gases in the solar wind when in the late 1960s he flew the brilliant solar wind collecting foil experiments on the five Apollo missions to the moon. Always at the forefront of the art of composition measurements, he with his colleagues determined the isotopic and elemental composition of the solar wind using instruments characterized by innovative design that have provided the most comprehensive record of the solar wind composition under all solar wind conditions at all helio-latitudes. He discovered heavy interstellar pickup ions, from which the composition of the neutral gas of the Local Interstellar Cloud is determined, and the “Inner Source” of pickup ions. Johannes Geiss played a key role both in the in-situ measurements and modeling of molecular ions in comets, and the interpretation of these data. He and co-workers measured the composition of plasmas in the magnetospheres of Earth and Jupiter. Here we highlight Johannes Geiss’ many discoveries and seminal contributions to our knowledge of the composition of matter of the Sun, solar wind, interstellar gas, early universe, comets and magnetospheres.     

An Update on Ultra-Heavy Elements in Solar Energetic Particles above 10 MeV/Nucleon

Measurements below several MeV/nucleon from Wind/LEMT and ACE/ULEIS show that elements heavier than Zn (Z=30) can be enhanced by factors of ∼100 to 1000, depending on species, in ³He-rich solar energetic particle (SEP) events. Using the Solar Isotope Spectrometer (SIS) on ACE we find that even large SEP (LSEP) shock-accelerated events at energies from ∼10 to >100 MeV/nucleon are often very iron rich and might contain admixtures of flare seed material. Studies of ultra-heavy (UH) SEPs (with Z>30) above 10 MeV/nucleon can be used to test models of acceleration and abundance enhancements in both LSEP and ³He-rich events. We find that the long-term average composition for elements from Z=30 to 40 is similar to standard solar system values, but there is considerable event-to-event variability. Although most of the UH fluence arrives during LSEP events, UH abundances are relatively more enhanced in ³He-rich events, with the (34<Z<40)/O ratio on average more than 50 times higher in ³He-rich events than in LSEP events. At energies >10 MeV/nucleon, the most extreme event in terms of UH composition detected so far took place on 23 July 2004 and had a (34<Z<40)/O enhancement of ∼250–300 times the standard solar value.