arXiv subjects

M. Carlsson

Publications and source records attributed to M. Carlsson.

79 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2007

High Resolution Observations and Modeling of Dynamic Fibrils

We present unprecedented high resolution H-alpha observations, obtained with the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope, that, for the first time, spatially and temporally resolve dynamic fibrils in active regions on the Sun. These jet-like features are similar to mottles or spicules in quiet Sun. We find that most of these fibrils follow almost perfect parabolic paths in their ascent and descent. We measure the properties of the parabolic paths taken by 257 fibrils, and present an overview of the deceleration, maximum velocity, maximum length and duration, as well as their widths and the thickness of a bright ring that often occurs above dynamic fibrils. We find that the observed deceleration of the projected path is typically only a fraction of solar gravity, and incompatible with a ballistic path at solar gravity. We report on significant differences of fibril properties between those occurring above a dense plage region, and those above a less dense plage region where the magnetic field seems more inclined from the vertical. We compare these findings to advanced numerical 2D radiative MHD simulations, and find that fibrils are most likely formed by chromospheric shock waves that occur when convective flows and global oscillations leak into the chromosphere along the field lines of magnetic flux concentrations. Detailed comparison of observed and simulated fibril properties shows striking similarities of the values for deceleration, maximum velocity, maximum length and duration. We compare our results with observations of mottles and find that a similar mechanism is most likely at work in the quiet Sun.

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arXiv2006

The non-LTE line formation of neutral carbon in late-type stars

We investigate the non-Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (non-LTE) line formation of neutral carbon in late-type stars in order to remove some of the potential systematic errors in stellar abundance analyses employing C I features. The statistical equilibrium code MULTI was used on a grid of plane-parallel 1D MARCS atmospheric models. Within the parameter space explored, the high-excitation C I lines are stronger in non-LTE due to the combined effect of line source function drop and increased lower level population; the relative importance of the two effects depends on the particular combination of Teff, log g, [Fe/H] and [C/Fe] and on the analysed C I line. As a consequence, the non-LTE abundance corrections are negative and can be substantially so, for example ~-0.4 dex in halo turn-off stars at [Fe/H]~-3. The magnitude of the non-LTE corrections is rather insensitive to whether inelastic H collisions are included or not. Our results have implications on studies of nucleosynthetic processes and on Galactic chemical evolution models. When applying our calculated corrections to recent observational data, the upturn in [C/O] at low metallicity might still be present (thus apparently still necessitating contributions from massive Pop. III stars for the carbon production), but at a lower level and possibly with a rather shallow trend of ~-0.2 dex/dex below [O/H]~-1

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arXiv2006

Dynamic Fibrils are driven by Magnetoacoustic Shocks

The formation of jets such as dynamic fibrils, mottles, and spicules in the solar chromosphere is one of the most important, but also most poorly understood, phenomena of the Sun's magnetized outer atmosphere. We use extremely high-resolution observations from the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope combined with advanced numerical modeling to show that in active regions these jets are a natural consequence of upwardly propagating slow mode magnetoacoustic shocks. These shocks form when waves generated by convective flows and global p-mode oscillations in the lower lying photosphere leak upward into the magnetized chromosphere. We find excellent agreement between observed and simulated jet velocities, decelerations, lifetimes and lengths. Our findings suggest that previous observations of quiet sun spicules and mottles may also be interpreted in light of a shock driven mechanism.

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arXiv2005

Simulation of quiet Sun waves in the Ca II infrared triplet

The Ca II infrared triplet around 8540 A is a good candidate for observing chromospheric magnetism. We show results from combining a radiation hydrodynamic simulation with a Stokes synthesis code. The simulation shows interesting time-varying behavior of the Stokes V profiles as waves propagate through the lines' formation regions. Disappearing and reappearing lobes in the Stokes V profiles as well as profile asymmetries are closely related to the atmospheric velocity gradients.

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arXiv2005

Radiative Hydrodynamic Models of the Optical and Ultraviolet Emission from Solar Flares

We report on radiative hydrodynamic simulations of moderate and strong solar flares. The flares were simulated by calculating the atmospheric response to a beam of non-thermal electrons injected at the apex of a one-dimensional closed coronal loop, and include heating from thermal soft X-ray, extreme ultraviolet and ultraviolet (XEUV) emission. The equations of radiative transfer and statistical equilibrium were treated in non-LTE and solved for numerous transitions of hydrogen, helium, and Ca II allowing the calculation of detailed line profiles and continuum emission. This work improves upon previous simulations by incorporating more realistic non-thermal electron beam models and includes a more rigorous model of thermal XEUV heating. We find XEUV backwarming contributes less than 10% of the heating, even in strong flares. The simulations show elevated coronal and transition region densities resulting in dramatic increases in line and continuum emission in both the UV and optical regions. The optical continuum reaches a peak increase of several percent which is consistent with enhancements observed in solar white light flares. For a moderate flare (~M-class), the dynamics are characterized by a long gentle phase of near balance between flare heating and radiative cooling, followed by an explosive phase with beam heating dominating over cooling and characterized by strong hydrodynamic waves. For a strong flare (~X-class), the gentle phase is much shorter, and we speculate that for even stronger flares the gentle phase may be essentially non-existent. During the explosive phase, synthetic profiles for lines formed in the upper chromosphere and transition region show blue shifts corresponding to a plasma velocity of ~120 km/s, and lines formed in the lower chromosphere show red shifts of ~40 km/s.

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arXiv2003

Non-equilibrium CO chemistry in the solar atmosphere

Investigating the reliability of the assumption of instantaneous chemical equilibrium (ICE) for calculating the CO number density in the solar atmosphere is of crucial importance for the resolution of the long-standing controversy over the existence of `cool clouds' in the chromosphere, and for determining whether the cool gas owes its existence to CO radiative cooling or to a hydrodynamical process. Here we report the first results of such an investigation in which we have carried out time-dependent gas-phase chemistry calculations in radiation hydrodynamical simulations of solar chromospheric dynamics. We show that while the ICE approximation turns out to be suitable for modeling the observed infrared CO lines at the solar disk center, it may substantially overestimate the `heights of formation' of strong CO lines synthesized close to the edge of the solar disk, especially concerning vigorous dynamic cases resulting from relatively strong photospheric disturbances. This happens because during the cool phases of the hydrodynamical simulations the CO number density in the outer atmospheric regions is smaller than what is stipulated by the ICE approximation, resulting in decreased CO opacity in the solar chromosphere. As a result, the cool CO-bearing gas which produces the observed molecular lines must be located at atmospheric heights not greater than 700 km, approximately. We conclude that taking into account the non-equilibrium chemistry improves the agreement with the available on-disk and off-limb observations, but that the hydrodynamical simulation model has to be even cooler than anticipated by the ICE approximation, and this has to be the case at the `new' (i.e. deeper) formation regions of the rovibrational CO lines.

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arXiv2003

Multi-level 3D non-LTE computations of lithium lines in the metal-poor halo stars HD140283 and HD84937

The lithium abundances in metal-poor halo stars are of importance for cosmology, galaxy evolution and stellar structure. In an attempt to study possible systematic errors in the derived Li abundances, the line formation of LiI lines has been investigated by means of realistic 3D hydrodynamical model atmospheres of halo stars and 3D non-LTE radiative transfer calculations. These are the first detailed 3D non-LTE computations reported employing a multi-level atomic model showing that such problems are now computationally tractable. The detailed computations reveal that the LiI population has a strong influence from the radiation field rather than the local gas temperature, indicating that the low derived Li abundances found by Asplund et al. (1999) are an artifact of their assumption of LTE. Relative to 3D LTE, the detailed calculations show pronounced over-ionization. In terms of abundances the 3D non-LTE values are within 0.05 dex of the 1D non-LTE results for the particular cases of HD140283 and HD84937, which is a consequence of the dominance of the radiation in determining the population density of LiI. Although 3D non-LTE can be expected to give results rather close (+/-0.1 dex) to 1D non-LTE for this reason, there may be systematic trends with metallicity and effective temperature.

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