Sun's Photosphere Research Articles

Quantifying Poynting Flux in the Quiet Sun Photosphere

Poynting flux is the flux of magnetic energy, which is responsible for chromospheric and coronal heating in the solar atmosphere. It is defined as a cross product of the electric and magnetic fields, and in ideal MHD conditions it can be expressed in terms of the magnetic field and plasma velocity. Poynting flux has been computed for active regions and plages, but estimating it in the quiet Sun (QS) remains challenging due to resolution effects and polarimetric noise. However, with the upcoming DKIST capabilities, such estimations will become more feasible than ever before. Here, we study QS Poynting flux in SUNRISE/IMaX observations and MURaM simulations. We explore two methods for inferring transverse velocities from observations—FLCT and a neural network–based method DeepVel—and show DeepVel to be the more suitable method in the context of small-scale QS flows. We investigate the effect of azimuthal ambiguity on Poynting flux estimates, and we describe a new method for azimuth disambiguation. Finally, we use two methods for obtaining the electric field. The first method relies on an idealized Ohm’s law, whereas the second is a state-of-the-art inductive electric field inversion method PDFI_SS. We compare the resulting Poynting flux values with theoretical estimates for chromospheric and coronal energy losses and find that some of the Poynting flux estimates are sufficient to match the losses. Using MURaM simulations, we show that photospheric Poynting fluxes vary significantly with optical depth, and that there is an observational bias that results in underestimated Poynting fluxes due to an unaccounted shear term contribution.

Long term rating (LTR) and energy efficacy of solar driven desalination systems in KSA using a common energy platform of standard solar energy (SSE)

All energy types consumed on Earth emanate from the Sun's photosphere, either directly or indirectly. The maximum potential of solar energy is based on direct normal irradiance from the sun. However, due to differences in the operation and production process of each system, instead of just direct normal irradiance, it is the maximum amount of radiation in any form available for the system. By introducing common platform based upon the concept of long term rating (LTR) and standard solar energy (SSE) platform, defined by the temperatures of the photosphere of the Sun and the average Earth's ambient, three practical solar harvesters were studied and compared in this paper. With such an approach, the efficacy of each solar system is compared meaningfully despite assorted optical and work or heat driven cycles were deployed. Citing the case of solar-powered seawater desalination example, the amount of standard solar energy (SSE) needed per m3 produced by the stationary photovoltaic (PV), concentrated photovoltaic (CPV), and concentrated solar power (CSP) systems are 6.49, 2.36, and 2.99, respectively. Despite the more efficient use of SSE per m3 by the CPV method, which is deemed technologically mature, yet the major trend for the investment of renewable solar systems, either willfully or ignorantly, is the least efficient solar PV. As sunlight availability per m2 is finite, a causal approach is needed for sustainable solar desalination.

Quantifying Properties of Photospheric Magnetic Cancellations in the Quiet Sun Internetwork

We analyzed spectropolarimetric data from the Swedish 1 m Solar Telescope to investigate the physical properties of small-scale magnetic cancellations in the quiet Sun photosphere. Specifically, we looked at the full Stokes polarization profiles along the Fe i 557.6 nm and of the Fe i 630.1 nm lines measured by the CRisp Imaging SpectroPolarimeter to study the temporal evolution of the line-of-sight magnetic field during 42.5 minutes of quiet Sun evolution. From this magnetogram sequence, we visually identified 38 cancellation events. We then used the Yet Another Feature Tracking Algorithm to characterize the physical properties of these magnetic cancellations. We found on average 1.6 × 1016 Mx of magnetic flux canceled in each event with an average cancellation rate of 3.8 × 1014 Mx s−1. The derived canceled flux is associated with strong downflows, with an average speed of V LOS ≈ 1.1 km s−1. Our results show that the average lifetime of each event is 9.2 minutes with an average of 44.8% of initial magnetic flux being canceled. Our estimates of magnetic fluxes provide a lower limit since studied magnetic cancellation events have magnetic field values that are very close to the instrument noise level. We observed no horizontal magnetic fields at the cancellation sites and therefore cannot conclude whether the events are associated with structures that could cause magnetic reconnection.

A 4,565-My-old andesite from an extinct chondritic protoplanet

The age of iron meteorites implies that accretion of protoplanets began during the first millions of years of the solar system. Due to the heat generated by 26Al decay, many early protoplanets were fully differentiated with an igneous crust produced during the cooling of a magma ocean and the segregation at depth of a metallic core. The formation and nature of the primordial crust generated during the early stages of melting is poorly understood, due in part to the scarcity of available samples. The newly discovered meteorite Erg Chech 002 (EC 002) originates from one such primitive igneous crust and has an andesite bulk composition. It derives from the partial melting of a noncarbonaceous chondritic reservoir, with no depletion in alkalis relative to the Sun's photosphere and at a high degree of melting of around 25%. Moreover, EC 002 is, to date, the oldest known piece of an igneous crust with a 26Al-26Mg crystallization age of 4,565.0 million years (My). Partial melting took place at 1,220 °C up to several hundred kyr before, implying an accretion of the EC 002 parent body ca. 4,566 My ago. Protoplanets covered by andesitic crusts were probably frequent. However, no asteroid shares the spectral features of EC 002, indicating that almost all of these bodies have disappeared, either because they went on to form the building blocks of larger bodies or planets or were simply destroyed.

Revisiting the nature of dark sunspots: the sun as a heat engine

This work is a continuation of the author's studies,1,2,3 related to the elucidation of the physical nature of dark sunspots. They showed that the appearance of cold sunspots, the temperature of which is below the temperature of the photosphere, is incompatible with the second law of thermodynamics. Sunspots in the Sun's photosphere can only be hot. This article provides a thermodynamic analysis of the work of the Sun as a heat engine. It is shown that sunspots are dissipative structures that spontaneously appear in the photosphere of the Sun and ensure its viability as a source of optical radiation. Sunspots play the role of a cooler for the sun's global heat engine, and without them its radiant glow would be impossible, just like the operation of any heat engine without a cold heat sink. In addition, it is shown that all the phenomena of solar activity are caused by the operation of the photospheric heat engine of the Sun, in which sunspots are the source of heat.

High-resolution wave dynamics in the lower solar atmosphere.

The magnetic and convective nature of the Sun's photosphere provides a unique platform from which generated waves can be modelled, observed and interpreted across a wide breadth of spatial and temporal scales. As oscillations are generated in-situ or emerge through the photospheric layers, the interplay between the rapidly evolving densities, temperatures and magnetic field strengths provides dynamic evolution of the embedded wave modes as they propagate into the tenuous solar chromosphere. A focused science team was assembled to discuss the current challenges faced in wave studies in the lower solar atmosphere, including those related to spectropolarimetry and radiative transfer in the optically thick regions. Following the Theo Murphy international scientific meeting held at Chicheley Hall during February 2020, the scientific team worked collaboratively to produce 15 independent publications for the current Special Issue, which are introduced here. Implications from the current research efforts are discussed in terms of upcoming next-generation observing and high-performance computing facilities. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'High-resolution wave dynamics in the lower solar atmosphere'.

The PDFI_SS Electric Field Inversion Software

We describe the PDFI_SS software library, which is designed to find the electric field at the Sun's photosphere from a sequence of vector magnetogram and Doppler velocity measurements, and estimates of horizontal velocities obtained from local correlation tracking using the recently upgraded FLCT code. The library, a collection of Fortran subroutines, uses the "PDFI" technique described by Kazachenko et al. (2014), but modified for use in spherical, Plate-Carr\'ee geometry on a staggered grid. The domain over which solutions are found is a subset of the global spherical surface, defined by user-specified limits of colatitude and longitude. Our staggered-grid approach, based on that of Yee (1966), is more conservative and self-consistent compared to the centered, Cartesian grid used by Kazachenko et al. (2014). The library can be used to compute an end-to-end solution for electric fields from data taken by the HMI instrument aboard NASA's SDO Mission. This capability has been incorporated into the HMI pipeline processing system operating at SDO's JSOC. The library is written in a general and modular way so that the calculations can be customized to modify or delete electric field contributions, or used with other data sets. Other applications include "nudging" numerical models of the solar atmosphere to facilitate assimilative simulations. The library includes an ability to compute "global" (whole-Sun) electric field solutions. The library also includes an ability to compute Potential Magnetic Field solutions in spherical coordinates. This distribution includes a number of test programs which allow the user to test the software.

Changes in Irradiance and Illuminance on Earth Surface during 11-Year Solar Activity Cycle

The article formulates the analytic expression approximating the sequence of Gregorian 11-year solar cycles and the expression of solar activity within one cycle. The dependences of effective thermodynamic temperature of the Sun photosphere and the solar constant, and the solar illuminance constant at the upper border of Earth atmosphere on the year number within one solar cycle were obtained. The generalised analytic expression for integral transmittance of atmosphere (within its spectral window) on the Earth surface for the direct and diffuse components of solar radiation and their sums at different solar altitude angles is presented. The analytic expressions of dependences of irradiance and illuminance on the Earth surface within spectral window of atmosphere and within the visible region of solar radiation spectrum on the year number within a certain solar cycle at different solar altitude angles are obtained. The results of calculation of direct and diffuse components of irradiance and illuminance and their sums in the case of clear sky are presented for example. The proposed approach allows similar calculations to conduct for different types of sky cover.

Space Weather Challenge and Forecasting Implications of Rossby Waves

AbstractRossby waves arise in thin layers within fluid regions of stars and planets. These global wave‐like patterns occur due to the variation in Coriolis forces with latitude. In the past several years observational evidence has indicated that there are also Rossby waves in the Sun. Although Rossby waves have been detected in the Sun's photosphere and corona, they most likely originate in the solar tachocline, the sharp shear layer at the base of the solar convection zone, where the differential rotation driven by convection transitions to the solidly rotating radiative interior. These waves differ from their Earth's counterparts by being strongly modified by toroidal magnetic fields in the solar tachocline. Recent simulations of magnetohydrodynamics of tachocline Rossby waves and magnetic fields are demonstrated to produce strong “tachocline nonlinear oscillations,” which have periods similar to those observed in the solar atmosphere—enhanced periods of solar activity, or “seasons”—occurring at intervals between six months and two years. These seasonal/subseasonal bursts produce the strongest eruptive space weather events. Thus, a key to forecasting the timing, amplitude, and location of future activity bursts, and hence space weather events, could lie in our ability to forecast the phase and amplitude of Rossby waves and associated tachocline nonlinear oscillations. Accurately forecasting the properties of solar Rossby waves and their impact on space weather will require linking surface activity observations to the magnetohydrodynamics of tachocline Rossby waves, using modern data assimilation techniques. Both short‐term (hours to days) and long‐term (decadal to millennial) forecasts of space weather and climate are now being made. We highlight in this article the potential of solar Rossby waves for forecasting space weather on intermediate time scales, of several weeks to months up to a few years ahead.

Consistent transport properties in multicomponent two-temperature magnetized plasmas

Aims.We present a fluid model that has been developed for multicomponent two-temperature magnetized plasmas in chemical non-equilibrium for the partially to fully ionized collisional regimes. We focus on transport phenomena with the aim of representing the atmosphere of the Sun.Methods.This study is based on an asymptotic fluid model for multicomponent plasmas derived from kinetic theory, yielding a rigorous description of the dissipative effects. The governing equations and consistent transport properties are obtained using a multiscale Chapman-Enskog perturbative solution to the Boltzmann equation based on a dimensional analysis. The mass disparity between free electrons and heavy particles is accounted for, as well as the influence of the electromagnetic field. We couple this model to the Maxwell equations for the electromagnetic field and derive the generalized Ohm’s law for multicomponent plasmas. The model inherits a well-identified mathematical structure leading to an extended range of validity for the Sun’s atmospheric conditions. We compute consistent transport properties by means of a spectral Galerkin method using the Laguerre-Sonine polynomial approximation. Two non-vanishing polynomial terms are used when deriving the transport systems for electrons, whereas only one term is retained for heavy particles.Results.In a simplified framework where the plasma is fully ionized, we compare the transport properties for the lower solar atmosphere to conventional expressions for magnetized plasmas attributed to Braginskii, showing a good agreement between both results. For more general partially ionized conditions, representative of the lower solar atmosphere, we compute the muticomponent transport properties corresponding to the species diffusion velocities, heavy-particle and electron heat fluxes, and viscous stress tensor of the model for a helium-hydrogen mixture in local thermodynamic equilibrium. The model is assessed for the 3D radiative magnetohydrodynamic simulation of a pore at the Sun photosphere. The resistive term is found to dominate mainly the dynamics of the electric field at the pore location. The battery term for heavy particles appears to be higher at the pore location and at some intergranulation boundaries.

Driving solar coronal MHD simulations on high-performance computers

ABSTRACTThe quality of today's research is often tightly limited to the available computing power and scalability of codes to many processors. For example, tackling the problem of heating the solar corona requires a most realistic description of the plasma dynamics and the magnetic field. Numerically solving such a magneto-hydrodynamical (MHD) description of a small active region (AR) on the Sun requires millions of computation hours on current high-performance computing (HPC) hardware. The aim of this work is to describe methods for an efficient parallelisation of boundary conditions and data input/output (IO) strategies that allow for a better scaling towards thousands of processors (CPUs). The Pencil Code is tested before and after optimisation to compare the performance and scalability of a coronal MHD model above an AR. We present a novel boundary condition for non-vertical magnetic fields in the photosphere, where we approach the realistic pressure increase below the photosphere. With that, magnetic flux bundles become narrower with depth and the flux density increases accordingly. The scalability is improved by more than one order of magnitude through the HPC-friendly boundary conditions and IO strategies. This work describes also the necessary nudging methods to drive the MHD model with observed magnetic fields from the Sun's photosphere. In addition, we present the upper and lower atmospheric boundary conditions (photospheric and towards the outer corona), including swamp layers to diminish perturbations before they reach the boundaries. Altogether, these methods enable more realistic 3D MHD simulations than previous models regarding the coronal heating problem above an AR – simply because of the ability to use a large amount of CPUs efficiently in parallel.

On fast solid-body rotation of the solar core and differential (liquid-like) rotation of the solar surface

On the basis of a two-component (two-fluid) hydrodynamic model, it is shown that the probable phenomenon of solar core rotation with a velocity higher than the average velocity of global rotation of the Sun, discovered by the SOHO mission, can be related to fast solid-body rotation of the light hydrogen component of the solar plasma, which is caused by thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium inside the hot dense solar core. Thermonuclear fusion of four protons into a helium nucleus (α-particle) creates a large free specific volume per unit particle due to the large difference between the densities of the solar plasma and nuclear matter. As a result, an efficient volumetric sink of one of the components of the solar substance—hydrogen—forms inside the solar core. Therefore, a steady-state radial proton flux converging to the center should exist inside the Sun, which maintains a constant concentration of hydrogen as it burns out in the solar core. It is demonstrated that such a converging flux of hydrogen plasma with the radial velocity v r (r) = −βr creates a convective, v r ∂v φ/∂r, and a local Coriolis, v r v φ/r,φ nonlinear hydrodynamic forces in the solar plasma, rotating with the azimuthal velocity v φ. In the absence of dissipation, these forces should cause an exponential growth of the solid-body rotation velocity of the hydrogen component inside the solar core. However, friction between the hydrogen and helium components of the solar plasma due to Coulomb collisions of protons with α-particles results in a steady-state regime of rotation of the hydrogen component in the solar core with an angular velocity substantially exceeding the global rotational velocity of the Sun. It is suggested that the observed differential (liquid-like) rotation of the visible surface of the Sun (photosphere) with the maximum angular velocity at the equator is caused by sold-body rotation of the solar plasma in the radiation zone and strong turbulence in the tachocline layer, where the turbulent viscosity reaches its maximum value at the equator. There, the tachocline layer exerts the most efficient drag on the less dense outer layers of the solar plasma, which are slowed down due to the interaction with the ambient space plasma (solar wind).

The isotope composition of selenium in chondrites constrains the depletion mechanism of volatile elements in solar system materials

Solar nebula processes led to a depletion of volatile elements in different chondrite groups when compared to the bulk chemical composition of the solar system deduced from the Sun's photosphere. For moderately-volatile elements, this depletion primarily correlates with the element condensation temperature and is possibly caused by incomplete condensation from a hot solar nebula, evaporative loss from the precursor dust, and/or inherited from the interstellar medium. Element concentrations and interelement ratios of volatile elements do not provide a clear picture about responsible mechanisms. Here, the abundance and stable isotope composition of the moderately- to highly-volatile element Se are investigated in carbonaceous, ordinary, and enstatite chondrites to constrain the mechanism responsible for the depletion of volatile elements in planetary bodies of the inner solar system and to define a δ82/78Se value for the bulk solar system. The δ82/78Se of the studied chondrite falls are identical within their measurement uncertainties with a mean of −0.20±0.26‰ (2 s.d., n=14, relative to NIST SRM 3149) despite Se abundance depletions of up to a factor of 2.5 with respect to the CI group. The absence of resolvable Se isotope fractionation rules out a kinetic Rayleigh-type incomplete condensation of Se from the hot solar nebula or partial kinetic evaporative loss on the precursor material and/or the parent bodies. The Se depletion, if acquired during partial condensation or evaporative loss, therefore must have occurred under near equilibrium conditions to prevent measurable isotope fractionation. Alternatively, the depletion and cooling of the nebula could have occurred simultaneously due to the continuous removal of gas and fine particles by the solar wind accompanied by the quantitative condensation of elements from the pre-depleted gas. In this scenario the condensation of elements does not require equilibrium conditions to avoid isotope fractionation. The results further suggest that the processes causing the high variability of Se concentrations and depletions in ordinary and enstatite chondrites did not involve any measurable isotope fractionation. Different degrees of element depletions and isotope fractionations of the moderately-volatile elements Zn, S, and Se in ordinary and enstatite chondrites indicate that their volatility is controlled by the thermal stabilities of their host phases and not by the condensation temperature under canonical nebular conditions.

Milne‐Eddington inversion for unresolved magnetic structures in the quiet Sun photosphere

AbstractThis paper is first devoted to present our method for modeling unresolved magnetic structures in the Milne‐Eddington inversion of spectropolarimetric data. The related definitions and other approaches and different used inversion algorithms are recalled for comparison. In a second part, we apply our method to quiet Sun data outside active regions. We obtain the quiet Sun photospheric magnetic field as composed of unresolved opening and connected magnetic flux tubes, which form a loop carpet of field lines. We then analyze the spatial correlation, which we also observed for the magnetic field vector, in terms of flux tube diameter, distance, and field strength. We find that different observations with the Zurich imaging polarimeter and THEMIS polarimeter mounted on the THEMIS telescope give very close results, and we add results also very close derived from HINODE/Solar Optical Telescope/spectropolarimeter observations analyzed with the same method. We obtain a mean flux tube diameter of 30 km, a mean flux tube distance of 230 km, and a mean flux tube magnetic field of 1.3 kG.

N-body model of magnetic flux tubes reconnecting in the solar atmosphere

The investigation of dynamics of the small scale magnetic field on the Sun photosphere is necessary to understand the physical processes occurring in the higher layers of solar atmosphere due to the magnetic coupling between the photosphere and the corona. We present a simulation able to address these phenomena investigating the statistics of magnetic loops reconnections. The simulation is based on N-body model approach and is divided in two computational layers. We simplify the convection problem, interpreting the larger convective scale, mesogranulation, as the result of the collective interaction of convective downflow of granular scale. The N-body advection model is the base to generate a synthetic time series of nanoflares produced by interacting magnetic loops. The reconnection of magnetic field lines is the result of the advection of the magnetic footpoints following the velocity field generated by the interacting downflows. The model gives a quantitative idea of how much energy is expected to be released by the reconfiguration of magnetic loops in the quiet Sun.

CONTINUUM INTENSITY AND [O i] SPECTRAL LINE PROFILES IN SOLAR 3D PHOTOSPHERIC MODELS: THE EFFECT OF MAGNETIC FIELDS

The importance of magnetic fields in three-dimensional magnetoconvection models of the Sun's photosphere is investigated in terms of their influence on the continuum intensity at different viewing inclination angles, and on the intensity profile of two [O I] spectral lines. We use the RH numerical radiative transfer code to perform a posteriori spectral synthesis on the same time-series of magnetoconvection models used in our publications on the effect of magnetic fields on abundance determination. We obtain a good match of the synthetic disc-centre continuum intensity to the absolute continuum values from the FTS observational spectrum; the match of the centre-to-limb variation (CLV) synthetic data to observations is also good, thanks, in part, to the 3D radiation transfer capabilities of the RH code. The different levels of magnetic flux in the numerical time-series do not modify the quality of the match. Concerning the targetted [O I] spectral lines, we find, instead, that magnetic fields lead to non-negligible changes in the synthetic spectrum, with larger average magnetic flux causing the line to become noticeably weaker. The photospheric oxygen abundance that one would derive if instead using non-magnetic numerical models would thus be lower by a few to several centidexes. The inclusion of magnetic fields is confirmed to be important for improving the current modelling of the Sun, here in particular in terms of spectral line formation and of deriving consistent chemical abundances. These results may shed further light on the still controversial issue regarding the precise value of the solar oxygen abundance.

The Orgueil meteorite: 150 years of history

AbstractThe goal of this paper is to summarize 150 yr of history of a very special meteorite. The Orgueil meteorite fell near Montauban in southwestern France on May 14, 1864. The bolide, which was the size of the full Moon, was seen across Western France, and almost immediately made the news in local and Parisian newspapers. Within a few weeks of the fall, a great diversity of analyses were performed under the authority of Gabriel Auguste Daubrée, geology professor at the Paris Museum, and published in the Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences. The skilled scientists reported the presence of iron sulfides, hydrated silicates, and carbonates in Orgueil. They also characterized ammonium salts which are now gone, and observed sulfates being remobilized at the surface of the stone. They identified the high water and carbon contents, and noted similarities with the Alais meteorite, which had fallen in 1806, 300 km away. While Daubrée and his colleagues noted the similarity of the Orgueil organic matter with some terrestrial humus, they were cautious not to make a direct link with living organisms. One century later, Nagy and Claus were less prudent and announced the discovery of “organized” elements in some samples of Orgueil. Their observations were quickly discredited by Edward Anders and others who also discovered that some pollen grains were intentionally placed into the rock back in the 1860s. Orgueil is now one of the most studied meteorites, indeed one of the most studied rocks of any kind. Not only does it contain a large diversity of carbon‐rich compounds, which help address the question of organo‐synthesis in the early solar system but its chemical composition is also close to that of the Sun's photosphere and serves as a cosmic reference. Secondary minerals, which make up 99% of the volume of Orgueil, were probably formed during hydrothermal alteration on the parent‐body within the first few million years of the solar system; their study is essential to our understanding of fluid–rock interaction in asteroids and comets. Finally, the Orgueil meteorite probably originated from a volatile‐rich “cometary” outer solar system body as indicated by its orbit. Because it bears strong similarities to other carbonaceous chondrites that originated on dark asteroids, this cometary connection supports the idea of a continuum between dark asteroids and comets.

Pair separation of magnetic elements in the quiet Sun

The dynamic properties of the quiet Sun photosphere can be investigated by analyzing the pair dispersion of small-scale magnetic fields (i.e., magnetic elements). By using $25$ hr-long Hinode magnetograms at high spatial resolution ($0".3$), we tracked $68,490$ magnetic element pairs within a supergranular cell near the disk center. The computed pair separation spectrum, calculated on the whole set of particle pairs independently of their initial separation, points out what is known as a super-diffusive regime with spectral index $\gamma=1.55\pm0.05$, in agreement with the most recent literature, but extended to unprecedented spatial and temporal scales (from granular to supergranular). Furthermore, for the first time, we investigated here the spectrum of the mean square displacement of pairs of magnetic elements, depending on their initial separation $r_0$. We found that there is a typical initial distance above (below) which the pair separation is faster (slower) than the average. A possible physical interpretation of such a typical spatial scale is also provided.

The ion–atom absorption processes as one of the factors of the influence on the sunspot opacity

As a continuation of the previous investigations of the symmetric and strongly non-symmetric ion-atom absorption processes in the far UV region within the models of the quiet Sun photosphere, these processes are studied here within a model of the sunspot. Here we mean the absorption processes in the H$(1s)$+H$^{+}$ and H$(1s)+X^{+}$ collisions and the processes of the photo-dissociation of the H$_{2}^{+}$ and H$X^{+}$ molecular ions, where $X$ is one of the metal atoms: $X=$Na, Ca, Mg, Si and Al. Obtained results show that the influence of the considered ion-atom absorption processes on the opacity of sunspots in the considered spectral region (110 nm $\lesssim \lambda \lesssim$ 230 nm) is not less and in some parts even larger than the influence of the referent electron-atom processes. In such a way, it is shown that the considered ion-atom absorption processes should be included \emph{ab initio} in the corresponding models of sunspots of solar-type and near solar-type stars. Apart of that, the spectral characteristics of the considered non-symmetric ion-atom absorption processes (including here the case $X$ = Li), which can be used in some further applications, have been determined and presented within this work.

Spectropolarimetric diagnostics of unresolved magnetic fields in the quiet solar photosphere

AbstractA few years before the Hinode space telescope was launched, an investigation based on the Hanle effect in atomic and molecular lines indicated that the bulk of the quiet solar photosphere is significantly magnetized, due to the ubiquitous presence of an unresolved magnetic field with an average strength 〈B〉, ≈ 130 G. It was pointed out also that this “hidden” field must be much stronger in the intergranular regions of solar surface convection than in the granular regions, and it was suggested that this unresolved magnetic field could perhaps provide the clue for understanding how the outer solar atmosphere is energized. In fact, the ensuing magnetic energy density is so significant that the energy flux estimated using the typical value of 1 km/s for the convective velocity (thinking in rising magnetic loops) or the Alfvén speed (thinking in Alfvén waves generated by magnetic reconnection) turns out to be substantially larger than that required to balance the chromospheric energy losses. Here we present a brief review of the research that led to such conclusions, with emphasis on a new three-dimensional radiative transfer investigation aimed at determining the magnetization of the quiet Sun photosphere from the Hanle effect in the Sr I 4607 Å line and the Zeeman effect in Fe I lines.