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Register a new userChromospheric sunspots in the millimeter range as observed by the Nobeyama Radioheliograph
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We investigate the upper chromosphere and the transition region of the sunspot umbra using the radio brightness temperature at 34 GHz (corresponding to 8.8-mm observations) as observed by the Nobeyama Radioheliograph (NoRH). Radio free-free emission in the longer millimeter range is generated around the transition region, and its brightness temperature yields the regions temperature and density distribution. We use the NoRH data at 34 GHz by applying the Steer-CLEAN image synthesis. These data and the analysis method enable us to investigate the chromospheric structures in the longer millimeter range with high spatial resolution and sufficient visibilities. We also perform simultaneous observations of one sunspot using the NoRH and the Nobeyama 45-m telescope operating at 115 GHz. We determine that 115-GHz emission mainly originates from the lower chromosphere while 34-GHz emission mainly originates from the upper chromosphere and transition region. These observational results are consistent with the radio emission characteristics estimated from the current atmospheric models of the chromosphere. On the other hand, the observed brightness temperature of the umbral region is almost the same as that of the quiet region. This result is inconsistent with the current sunspot models, which predict a considerably higher brightness temperature of the sunspot umbra at 34 GHz. This inconsistency suggests that the temperature of the region at which the 34 GHz radio emission becomes optically thick should be lower than that predicted by the models.
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Coronal and chromospheric magnetic fields are derived from polarization and spectral observations of the thermal free-free emission using the Nobeyama Radioheliograph (NoRH). In magnetized plasma, the ordinary and extraordinary modes of free-free emission have different optical depths. This creates a circularly polarized component in an atmosphere with a temperature gradient. We observed an active region on April 13, 2012 to derive its coronal and chromospheric magnetic fields. The observed degree of circular polarization was between 0.5 % and 1.7 %. The radio circular polarization images were compared with ultraviolet images observed by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly and the photospheric magnetic field observed by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager, both on board the Solar Dynamic Observatory. At the edge of the active region, the radio circular polarization was emitted mainly from coronal loops, and the coronal magnetic field was derived to be about 70 G. At the center of the active region, the chromospheric and coronal components cannot be separated. The derived magnetic field is about 20 % to 50 % of the corresponding photospheric magnetic field, which is an emission-measure-weighted average of the coronal and chromospheric magnetic fields.
The brightness temperature of the radio free-free emission at millimeter range is an effective tool for characterizing the vertical structure of the solar chromosphere. In this paper, we report on the first single-dish observation of a sunspot at 85 and 115 GHz with sufficient spatial resolution for resolving the sunspot umbra using the Nobeyama 45 m telescope. We used radio attenuation material, i.e. a solar filter, to prevent the saturation of the receivers. Considering the contamination from the plage by the side-lobes, we found that the brightness temperature of the umbra should be lower than that of the quiet region. This result is inconsistent with the preexisting atmospheric models. We also found that the brightness temperature distribution at millimeter range strongly corresponds to the ultraviolet (UV) continuum emission at 1700 {AA}, especially at the quiet region.
Adopting the thermal free-free emission mechanism, the coronal and chromospheric magnetic fields are derived from the polarization and spectral observations with the Nobeyama Radioheliograph at 1.76 cm. The solar active regions (AR) located near the disk center observed on January 8, 2015 (AR 12257) and December 4, 2016 (AR 12615) are used for the estimate of the chromospheric and coronal magnetic fields with the microwave radio observations. We compare solar radio maps of active regions for both intensity and circularly polarized component with the optical maps from observations with the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager and the chromosphere and corona transition region images obtained with the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly instrument, on board the Solar Dynamic Observatory. We notice from the comparison between radio maps of both AR that the circular polarization degree in the AR 12257 is about 2 percent, but the AR 12615 has a higher existent value by 3 percent. Radio observations provide us for direct measurements of magnetic fields in the chromospheric and coronal layers. We estimate the coronal magnetic fields using the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly observations by adopting magnetic loops in the corona over some patches with weak photospheric magnetic fields. The coronal magnetic field derived from the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly data was from 90 to 240 Gauss. We also study the coronal magnetic fields based on the structure of the extrapolated field, where the result of the magnetic fields was in the range from 35 to 145 Gauss, showing that the difference in the coronal magnetic fields between both results is attributed to the assumption of the force-free approximation.
We found systematic microwave source motions along a flare-arcade using Nobeyama Radioheliograph (NoRH) 17 GHz images. The motions were associated with a X-class disk flare which occurred on 15th February 2011. For this study, we also used EUV images from Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) and magnetograms from Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) onboard Solar Dynamics Observatory, and multi-channel microwave data from Nobeyama Radiopolarimeters (NoRP) and Korean Solar Radio Burst Locator (KSRBL). We traced centroids of the microwave source observed by NoRH 17 GHz during the flare and found two episodes of the motion with several facts: 1) The microwave source moved systematically along the flare-arcade, which was observed by the AIA 94 A in a direction parallel to the neutral line. 2) The period of each episode was 5 min and 14 min, respectively. 3) Estimated parallel speed was 34 km/s for the first episode and 22 km/s for the second episode. The spectral slope of microwave flux above 10 GHz obtained by NoRP and KSRBL was negative for both episodes, and for the last phase of the second episodes, it was flat with the flux of 150 sfu. The negative spectrum and the flat with high flux indicate that the gyrosynchrotron emission from accelerated electrons was dominant during the source motions. The sequential images from the AIA 304 A and 94 A channels revealed that there were successive plasma eruptions and each eruption was initiated just before the start time of the microwave sources motion. Based on the results, we suggest that the microwave source motion manifests the displacement of the particle acceleration site caused by plasma eruptions.
Aims: The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that millimeter wave data can be used to distinguish between various atmospheric models of sunspots, whose temperature structure in the upper photosphere and chromosphere has been the source of some controversy. Methods: We use observations of the temperature contrast (relative to the quiet Sun) above a sunspot umbra at 3.5 mm obtained with the Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Array (BIMA), complemented by submm observations from Lindsey & Kopp (1995) and 2 cm observations with the Very Large Array. These are compared with the umbral contrast calculated from various atmospheric models of sunspots. Results: Current mm and submm observational data suggest that the brightness observed at these wavelengths is low compared to the most widely used sunspot models. These data impose strong constraints on the temperature and density stratifications of the sunspot umbral atmosphere, in particular on the location and depth of the temperature minimum and the location of the transition region. Conclusions: A successful model that is in agreement with millimeter umbral brightness should have an extended and deep temperature minimum (below 3000 K). Better spatial resolution as well as better wavelength coverage are needed for a more complete determination of the chromospheric temperature stratification above sunspot umbrae.
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