Department Logo for Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences

Probing Solar Chromospheric Temperatures and Dynamics with ALMA and IBIS


Jan. 17, 2020, 3:30 p.m. - 5 p.m.
Geology 6704

Presented By:
Kevin Reardon
National Solar Observatory

See Event on Google. Subscribe to Calendar

Even after decades of detailed study, many mysteries about the solar chromosphere remain. Making progress on these questions will be a key focus of solar physics in the coming years. In this talk, I will show recent work in this area combining imaging spectroscopy in the optical using the Interferometric Bidimensional Spectrometer (IBIS) and millimeter diagnostics from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA). Using these instruments, we can probe the chromospheric temperature structure and dynamics on time scales of tens of seconds and at spatial scales of a few 100 km. We find evidence that spectral-line parameters of H-alpha and Ca II are closely correlated with the ALMA brightness temperatures. I will discuss how this changes our understanding of chromospheric dynamics and the interpretation of the observed spectral intensities. Finally, I will provide an overview of advances we expect on these questions from the soon-to-be-operational DKI Solar Telescope (DKIST).