The fine structure of the solar atmosphere in the far ultraviolet

Abstract

High resolution spectroheliograms in the ultraviolet emission lines He i, He ii, O iv, O v, and Ne vii have been photographed during a sounding rocket flight. Simultaneously, broad band filtergrams of the far ultraviolet solar corona were obtained from the same flight. This paper describes qualitatively the spatial distribution of the UV emission. A comparison with an Hα filtergram is made. The most significant results can be summarized as follows: We find most of the ultraviolet emission concentrated around spicules, with different degree of concentration, decreasing with higher temperatures. 4 different areas of ultraviolet emission can be distinguished. (1) The normal network, bright in all UV emission lines from the chromosphere into the corona. (2) The coronal holes, bright in all UV emission lines up to 600 000 K but depressed in coronal lines from 1 million degrees upward. (3) The coronal depressions near active centers, absence of all ultraviolet emissions and (4) Active regions, where ultraviolet emission comes from plages, sunspots and coronal loops. High non-thermal Doppler velocities can be found in certain plage kernels around 105 to 2 × 105 K. Sunspots are bright in the ultraviolet, but do not exhibit He i or He ii emission. The corona above sunspots is weak. Sunspots do not show high non-thermal Doppler velocities. The He i and He ii emission does not follow either chromospheric, transition zone or coronal pattern; one can recognize some typical behavior of each.