The Effects of Spatio-temporal Resolution on Deduced Spicule Properties

Spicules have been observed on the sun for more than a century, typically in chromospheric lines such as H-alpha and Ca II H. Recent work has shown that so-called 'type II' spicules may have a role in providing mass to the corona and the solar wind. In chromospheric filtergrams these spicules are not seen to fall back down, and they are shorter-lived and more dynamic than the spicules that have been classically reported in ground-based observations. Observations of type II spicules with Hinode show fundamentally different properties from what was previously measured. In earlier work we showed that these dynamic type II spicules are the most common type, a view that was not properly identified by early observations.The aim of this work is to investigate the effects of spatio-temporal resolution in the classical spicule measurements. Making use of Hinode data degraded to match the observing conditions of older ground-based studies, we measure the properties of spicules with a semi-automated algorithm. These results are then compared to measurements using the original Hinode data. We find that degrading the data has a significant effect on the measured properties of spicules. Most importantly, the results from the degraded data agree well with older studies (e.g. mean spicule duration more than 5 minutes, and upward apparent velocities of about 25 km/s). These results illustrate how the combination of spicule superposition, low spatial resolution and cadence affect the measured properties of spicules, and that previous measurements can be misleading.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 5 pages, 3 figures. Movies of figures 1 and 3 available via Data Conservanc

The Formation of IRIS diagnostics. IV. The Mg II triplet lines as a new diagnostic for lower chromospheric heating

A triplet of subordinate lines of Mg II exists in the region around the h&k lines. In solar spectra these lines are seen mostly in absorption, but in some cases can become emission lines. The aim of this work is to study the formation of this triplet, and investigate any diagnostic value they can bring. Using 3D radiative magnetohydrodynamic simulations of quiet Sun and flaring flux emergence, we synthesize spectra and investigate how spectral features respond to the underlying atmosphere. We find that emission in the lines is rare and is typically caused by a steep temperature increase in the lower chromosphere (above 1500 K, with electron densities above 10$^{18}$ m$^{-3}$). In both simulations the lines are sensitive to temperature increases taking place at column masses >= 5e-4 g cm$^{-2}$. Additional information can also be inferred from the peak-to-wing ratio and shape of the line profiles. Using observations from NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph we find both absorption and emission line profiles with similar shapes to the synthetic spectra, which suggests that these lines represent a useful diagnostic that complements the MgII h&k lines.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

RH 1.5D: a massively parallel code for multi-level radiative transfer with partial frequency redistribution and Zeeman polarisation

The emergence of three-dimensional magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of stellar atmospheres has sparked a need for efficient radiative transfer codes to calculate detailed synthetic spectra. We present RH 1.5D, a massively parallel code based on the RH code and capable of performing Zeeman polarised multi-level non-local thermodynamical equilibrium (NLTE) calculations with partial frequency redistribution for an arbitrary amount of chemical species. The code calculates spectra from 3D, 2D or 1D atmospheric models on a column-by-column basis (or 1.5D). While the 1.5D approximation breaks down in the cores of very strong lines in an inhomogeneous environment, it is nevertheless suitable for a large range of scenarios and allows for faster convergence with finer control over the iteration of each simulation column. The code scales well to at least tens of thousands of CPU cores, and is publicly available. In the present work we briefly describe its inner workings, strategies for convergence optimisation, its parallelism, and some possible applications.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. A&A in press. Updated version reflects changes in latest proof

The formation of IRIS diagnostics. III. Near-ultraviolet Spectra and Images

The Mg II h&k lines are the prime chromospheric diagnostics of NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS). In the previous papers of this series we used a realistic three-dimensional radiative magnetohydrodynamics model to calculate the h&k lines in detail and investigated how their spectral features relate to the underlying atmosphere. In this work, we employ the same approach to investigate how the h&k diagnostics fare when taking into account the finite resolution of IRIS and different noise levels. In addition, we investigate the diagnostic potential of several other photospheric lines and near-continuum regions present in the near-ultraviolet (NUV) window of IRIS and study the formation of the NUV slit-jaw images. We find that the instrumental resolution of IRIS has a small effect on the quality of the h&k diagnostics; the relations between the spectral features and atmospheric properties are mostly unchanged. The peak separation is the most affected diagnostic, but mainly due to limitations of the simulation. The effects of noise start to be noticeable at a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of 20, but we show that with noise filtering one can obtain reliable diagnostics at least down to a S/N of 5. The many photospheric lines present in the NUV window provide velocity information for at least eight distinct photospheric heights. Using line-free regions in the h&k far wings we derive good estimates of photospheric temperature for at least three heights. Both of these diagnostics, in particular the latter, can be obtained even at S/Ns as low as 5.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ. Updated version with fixed typos in line list and language edit

How realistic are solar model atmospheres?

Recently, new solar model atmospheres have been developed to replace classical 1D LTE hydrostatic models and used to for example derive the solar chemical composition. We aim to test various models against key observational constraints. In particular, a 3D model used to derive the solar abundances, a 3D MHD model (with an imposed 10 mT vertical magnetic field), 1D models from the PHOENIX project, the 1D MARCS model, and the 1D semi-empirical model of Holweger & M\"uller. We confront the models with observational diagnostics of the temperature profile: continuum centre-to-limb variations (CLV), absolute continuum fluxes, and the wings of hydrogen lines. We also test the 3D models for the intensity distribution of the granulation and spectral line shapes. The predictions from the 3D model are in excellent agreement with the continuum CLV observations, performing even better than the Holweger & M\"uller model (constructed largely to fulfil such observations). The predictions of the 1D theoretical models are worse, given their steeper temperature gradients. For the continuum fluxes, predictions for most models agree well with the observations. No model fits all hydrogen lines perfectly, but again the 3D model comes ahead. The 3D model also reproduces the observed continuum intensity fluctuations and spectral line shapes very well. The excellent agreement of the 3D model with the observables reinforces the view that its temperature structure is realistic. It outperforms the MHD simulation in all diagnostics, implying that recent claims for revised abundances based on MHD modelling are premature. Several weaknesses in the 1D models are exposed. The differences between the PHOENIX LTE and NLTE models are small. We conclude that the 3D hydrodynamical model is superior to any of the tested 1D models, which gives further confidence in the solar abundance analyses based on it.Comment: 17 pages, 15 figures. Accepted for publication in A&

Irregular grids for 3D NLTE radiative transfer in stellar atmospheres

Context. Three-dimensional non-local thermodynamical equilibrium (NLTE) radiative transfer calculations are a fundamental tool for a detailed spectral analysis in stellar atmospheres, but require vast amounts of computer power. This prevents their broader application. Aims. We undertake a first exploration of the use of 3D irregular grids in stellar atmospheres. In particular, we aim to test whether irregular grids can be used to speed up the 3D NLTE problem, in the same way as depth optimisation can lead to faster running times in 1D. Methods. We created irregular grids based on 3D Voronoi diagrams, sampling different distributions from a 3D radiation-magnetohydrodynamic Bifrost simulation. We developed a method for solving radiation on the 3D irregular grid and implemented a simple NLTE solver using $\Lambda$-iteration and statistical equilibrium. We applied this to a simplified hydrogen-like atom and studied the convergence properties and accuracy of the irregular grid methods. For reference, we compared them to a standard short-characteristics solver on a regular grid. Results. We find that our method for radiation in irregular grids gives similar results to those from regular grids, and that it is possible to obtain nearly the same results with about ten times fewer points in the irregular grid for the continuum intensity in local thermodynamical equilibrium. We find that the irregular grid can give good results for the NLTE problem, but it takes four times longer per iteration than the regular grid, and it converges in about the same number of iterations. This makes it particularly inefficient. Our formulation therefore does not lead to an improvement. We also find that the design of the irregular grid is crucial for accurate results, and find it non-trivial to design an irregular grid that can work well across a wide range of heights.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in A&