The Validity of Dynamical Models of the Solar Atmosphere

Author: Kalkofen Wolfgang  

Publisher: Springer Publishing Company

ISSN: 0038-0938

Source: Solar Physics, Vol.276, Iss.1-2, 2012-02, pp. : 75-95

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Abstract

Important results on the structure and dynamics of the nonmagnetic solar chromosphere are based on hydrodynamic models that oversimplify either the geometry of the atmosphere or the interaction of radiation and matter. Although the observed granulation pattern is well reproduced by the three-dimensional (3D) models, oversimplification of radiative relaxation leads to the prediction of temperature fluctuations that are too high (by a factor of 10 to 100) and result in a monotonic decrease with height in the chromosphere of the horizontally and temporally averaged temperature, and hence in the prediction of absorption lines at wavelengths where only emission lines are observed on the Sun. New values of solar abundances of oxygen and other metals are based on 3D hydrodynamic models with temporal and spatial fluctuations that are far greater than those observed. These new abundances destroy the previous agreement of observed modes with acoustic eigenmodes that had been predicted for the old abundances from a solar model for which the sound speed throughout most of the Sun was determined to an accuracy of a few parts in 104. One expects that, when radiative relaxation is properly accounted for, 3D models will reproduce the essential characteristics of the solar atmosphere, among them a positive temperature gradient in the outward direction and hence exclusively emission lines in the extreme ultraviolet at all times and positions in the nonmagnetic chromosphere. A minimum characteristic length of 0.1 arcsec is identified for the solar atmosphere, below which there is no significant structure in the actual Sun, only in wave models of the Sun. This criticism does not detract from the notable success of hydrodynamic modeling to explain the mechanism by which chromospheric H2V and K2V bright points are formed.