Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Mar 1981
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1981apj...244.1064a&link_type=abstract
Astrophysical Journal, Part 1, vol. 244, Mar. 15, 1981, p. 1064-1071.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
104
Atmospheric Temperature, Plasma Temperature, Solar Atmosphere, Solar Wind, Atmospheric Energy Sources, Carbon Monoxide, Cold Plasmas, Optical Thickness, Temperature Inversions
Scientific paper
It is suggested that two distinct plasma thermal states are possible in the solar outer atmosphere because of the bifurcated character of the low-temperature cooling function at small optical depths. In radiative equilibrium, the plasma is strongly cooled to temperatures well below 4000 K by surface emission in the Delta V = 1 fundamental vibration-rotation bands of CO. However, when significant mechanical energy deposition is present in addition to the radiative heating component, the only effective cooling channel available to stabilize the plasma is optically thin emission in the recombination continuum of H(-). Consequently, thermal equilibrium in a mechanically heated atmospheric zone can be attained only for temperatures above the critical temperature of 4900 K because H(-) is itself a net radiative heating agent for temperatures cooler than the critical temperature.
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