Observing the Solar Chromosphere

Abstract

This review is split into two parts: one on chromospheric line formation in answer to the frequent question "where is my line formed", and one presenting state-of-the-art imagery of the chromosphere. In the first part I specifically treat the formation of the Na D lines, Ca II H & K, and Halpha. In the second I show DOT, IBIS, VAULT, and TRACE images as evidence that the chromosphere consists of fibrils of intrinsically different types. The straight-up ones are hottest. The slanted ones are filled by shocks and likely possess thin transition sheaths to coronal plasma. The ones hovering horizontally over "clapotispheric" cell interiors outline magnetic canopies and are buffeted by shocks, most violently in the quietest regions. In the absence of integral-field ultraviolet spectrometry, H$\alpha$ remains the principal chromosphere diagnostic. The required fast-cadence profile-sampling imaging is an important quest for new telescope technology.Comment: in press,"Physics of Chromospheric Plasmas" (Coimbra), ASP 368, 27 (2007