NSF Award
9311451
9311451 Jeffries This project will use sub-millimeter solar observations, including occultation curves of the extreme solar limb obtained during total eclipses in 1981, 1988, and 1991, to model the solar chromosphere taking account of inhomogeneous structure and departures from hydrostatic equilibrium. The eclipse observations cover the wavelength range from 30 to 1300 microns and were obtained on the Kuiper Airborne Observatory (1981, 1988) and at the James Clark Maxwell Telescope on July 11, 1991. The analysis will be carried out using theoretical techniques which we have developed over the past few years, and which will allow the project to apply the power of LTE diagnostics (offered by the continuum at these wavelengths) to highly structured, inhomogeneous chromospheric models. The objective is to obtain the simplest multicomponent model which can satisfy the eclipse data and the center-to-limb measurements at these sub-millimeter wavelengths, while remaining consistent with the observed central disk intensities at other wavelengths and with the morphology shown in images of the different layers of the solar atmosphere. ***
