Solar emission lines near 12 microns

Abstract

The newly discovered 12 micron emission lines in the solar spectrum are found to vary strongly with position on the solar disk. The two strongest lines strengthen greatly toward the limb and disappear in spot umbrae. They show pronounced splitting in spot penumbrae and plages, characteristic of simple Zeeman triplets with g approximately equal to 1. Their narrow line profiles suggest a chromospheric rather than coronal origin, but the lines remain unidentified. Forty-one additional unidentified far-infrared solar emission lines are reported. Potential uses of the lines for astrophysical investigations are noted.

Identifiers

DOI

10.1086/184056

Citations and references