No Arabic abstract
How the solar electromagnetic energy entering the Earths atmosphere varied since pre-industrial times is an important consideration in the climate change debate. Detrimental to this debate, estimates of the change in total solar irradiance (TSI) since the Maunder minimum, an extended period of weak solar activity preceding the industrial revolution, differ markedly, ranging from a drop of 0.75 Wm-2 to a rise of 6.3 Wm-2. Consequently, the exact contribution by solar forcing to the rise in global temperatures over the past centuries remains inconclusive. Adopting a novel approach based on state-of-the-art solar imagery and numerical simulations, we establish the TSI level of the Sun when it is in its least-active state to be 2.0 +/- 0.7 Wm-2 below the 2019 level. This means TSI could not have risen since the Maunder minimum by more than this amount, thus restricting the possible role of solar forcing in global warming.
We analyze the Suns shadow observed with the Tibet-III air shower array and find that the shadows center deviates northward (southward) from the optical solar disc center in the Away (Toward) IMF sector. By comparing with numerical simulations based on the solar magnetic field model, we find that the average IMF strength in the Away (Toward) sector is $1.54 pm 0.21_{rm stat} pm 0.20_{rm syst}$ ($1.62 pm 0.15_{rm stat} pm 0.22_{rm syst}$) times larger than the model prediction. These demonstrate that the observed Suns shadow is a useful tool for the quantitative evaluation of the average solar magnetic field.
The X-ray and extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) emissions from the low-mass stars significantly affect the evolution of the planetary atmosphere. However, it is, observationally difficult to constrain the stellar high-energy emission because of the strong interstellar extinction of EUV photons. In this study, we simulate the XUV (X-ray+EUV) emission from the Sun-like stars by extending the solar coronal heating model that self-consistently solves, with sufficiently high resolution, the surface-to-coronal energy transport, turbulent coronal heating, and coronal thermal response by conduction and radiation. The simulations are performed with a range of loop lengths and magnetic filling factors at the stellar surface. With the solar parameters, the model reproduces the observed solar XUV spectrum below the Lyman edge, thus validating its capability of predicting the XUV spectra of other Sun-like stars. The model also reproduces the observed nearly-linear relation between the unsigned magnetic flux and the X-ray luminosity. From the simulation runs with various loop lengths and filling factors, we also find a scaling relation, namely $log L_{rm EUV} = 9.93 + 0.67 log L_{rm X}$, where $L_{rm EUV}$ and $L_{rm X}$ are the luminosity in the EUV and X-ray range, respectively, in cgs. By assuming a power-law relation between the Rossby number and the magnetic filling factor, we reproduce the renowned relation between the Rossby number and the X-ray luminosity. We also propose an analytical description of the energy injected into the corona, which, in combination with the conventional Rosner-Tucker-Vaiana scaling law, semi-analytically explains the simulation results. This study refines the concepts of solar and stellar coronal heating and derives a theoretical relation for estimating the hidden stellar EUV luminosity from X-ray observations.
We present a summary of the splinter session Sun-like stars unlike the Sun that was held on 09 June 2016 as part of the Cool Stars 19 conference (Uppsala, Sweden). We discussed the main limitations (in the theory and observations) in the derivation of very precise stellar parameters and chemical abundances of Sun-like stars. We outlined and discussed the most important and most debated processes that can produce chemical peculiarities in solar-type stars. Finally, in an open discussion between all the participants we tried to identify new pathways and prospects towards future solutions of the currently open questions.
The chemical composition of the Sun is a fundamental yardstick in astronomy, relative to which essentially all cosmic objects are referenced. We reassess the solar abundances of all 83 long-lived elements, using highly realistic solar modelling and state-of-the-art spectroscopic analysis techniques coupled with the best available atomic data and observations. Our new improved analysis confirms the relatively low solar abundances of C, N, and O obtained in our previous 3D-based studies: $logepsilon_{text{C}}=8.46pm0.04$, $logepsilon_{text{N}}=7.83pm0.07$, and $logepsilon_{text{O}}=8.69pm0.04$. The revised solar abundances for the other elements also typically agree well with our previously recommended values with just Li, F, Ne, Mg, Cl, Kr, Rb, Rh, Ba, W, Ir, and Pb differing by more than $0.05$ dex. The here advocated present-day photospheric metal mass fraction is only slightly higher than our previous value, mainly due to the revised Ne abundance from Genesis solar wind measurements: $X_{rm surface}=0.7438pm0.0054$, $Y_{rm surface}=0.2423pm 0.0054$, $Z_{rm surface}=0.0139pm 0.0006$, and $Z_{rm surface}/X_{rm surface}=0.0187pm 0.0009$. Overall the solar abundances agree well with those of CI chondritic meteorites but we identify a correlation with condensation temperature such that moderately volatile elements are enhanced by $approx 0.04$ dex in the CI chondrites and refractory elements possibly depleted by $approx 0.02$ dex, conflicting with conventional wisdom of the past half-century. Instead the solar chemical composition resembles more closely that of the fine-grained matrix of CM chondrites. The so-called solar modelling problem remains intact with our revised solar abundances, suggesting shortcomings with the computed opacities and/or treatment of mixing below the convection zone in existing standard solar models.
Stars grow by accreting gas that has an evolving composition owing to the growth and inward drift of dust (pebble wave), the formation of planetesimals and planets, and the selective removal of hydrogen and helium by disk winds. We investigated how the formation of the Solar System may have affected the composition and structure of the Sun, and whether it plays any role in solving the solar abundance problem. We simulated the evolution of the Sun from the protostellar phase to the present age and attempted to reproduce spectroscopic and helioseismic constraints. We performed chi-squared tests to optimize our input parameters. We confirmed that, for realistic models, planet formation occurs when the solar convective zone is still massive; thus, the overall changes due to planet formation are too small to significantly improve the chi-square fits. We found that solar models with up-to-date abundances require an opacity increase of 12% to 18% centered at $T=10^{6.4}$ K to reproduce the available observational constraints. This is slightly higher than, but is qualitatively in good agreement with, recent measurements of higher iron opacities. These models result in better fits to the observations than those using old abundances; therefore, they are a promising solution to the solar abundance problem. Using these improved models, we found that planet formation processes leave a small imprint in the solar core, whose metallicity is enhanced by up to 5%. This result can be tested by accurately measuring the solar neutrino flux. In the improved models, the protosolar molecular cloud core is characterized by a primordial metallicity in the range 0.0127-0.0157 and a helium mass fraction in the range 0.268-0.274. (abridged)