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Register a new userModeling stellar Ca II H & K emission variations. I. Effect of inclination on the S-index
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Added by
Krishnamurthy Sowmya
Publication date
2021
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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The emission in the near ultraviolet Ca II H & K lines is modulated by stellar magnetic activity. Although this emission, quantified via the S-index, has been serving as a prime proxy of stellar magnetic activity for several decades, many aspects of the complex relation between stellar magnetism and Ca II H & K emission are still unclear. The amount of measured Ca II H & K emission is suspected to be affected not only by the stellar intrinsic properties but also by the inclination angle of the stellar rotation axis. Until now such an inclination effect on S-index has remained largely unexplored. To fill this gap, we develop a physics-based model to calculate S-index, focusing on the Sun. Using the distributions of solar magnetic features derived from observations together with Ca II H & K spectra synthesized in non-local thermodynamic equilibrium, we validate our model by successfully reconstructing the observed variations of solar S-index over four activity cycles. Further, using the distribution of magnetic features over the visible solar disk obtained from surface flux transport simulations, we obtain S-index time series dating back to 1700 and investigate the effect of inclination on S-index variability, both on the magnetic activity cycle and the rotational timescales. We find that when going from an equatorial to a pole-on view, the amplitude of S-index variations decreases weakly on the activity cycle timescale and strongly on the rotational timescale (by about 22% and 81%, respectively, for a cycle of intermediate strength). The absolute value of S-index depends only weakly on the inclination. We provide analytical expressions that model such dependencies.
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Atmospheric escape is an important factor shaping the exoplanet population and hence drives our understanding of planet formation. Atmospheric escape from giant planets is driven primarily by the stellar X-ray and extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) radiation. Furthermore, EUV and longer wavelength UV radiation power disequilibrium chemistry in the middle and upper atmosphere. Our understanding of atmospheric escape and chemistry, therefore, depends on our knowledge of the stellar UV fluxes. While the far-ultraviolet fluxes can be observed for some stars, most of the EUV range is unobservable due to the lack of a space telescope with EUV capabilities and, for the more distant stars, to interstellar medium absorption. Thus, it becomes essential to have indirect means for inferring EUV fluxes from features observable at other wavelengths. We present here analytic functions for predicting the EUV emission of F-, G-, K-, and M-type stars from the log $R_{HK}$ activity parameter that is commonly obtained from ground-based optical observations of the Ca II H&K lines. The scaling relations are based on a collection of about 100 nearby stars with published log $R_{HK}$ and EUV flux values, where the latter are either direct measurements or inferences from high-quality far-ultraviolet (FUV) spectra. The scaling relations presented here return EUV flux values with an accuracy of about three, which is slightly lower than that of other similar methods based on FUV or X-ray measurements.
Measurements of the asymmetry of the emission peaks in the core of the Ca II H line for 105 giant stars are reported. The asymmetry is quantified with the parameter V/R, defined as the ratio between the maximum number of counts in the blueward peak and the redward peak of the emission profile. The Ca II H and K emission lines probe the differential motion of certain chromospheric layers in the stellar atmosphere. Data on V/R for the Ca II K line are drawn from previous papers and compared to the analogous H line ratio, the H and K spectra being from the same sets of observations. It is found that the H line V/R value is +0.04 larger, on average, than the equivalent K line ratio, however, the difference varies with B-V color. Red giants cooler than B-V = 1.2 are more likely to have the H line V/R larger than the K line V/R, whereas the opposite is true for giants hotter than B-V = 1.2. The differences between the Ca II H and K line asymmetries could be caused by the layers of chromospheric material from which these emission features arise moving with different velocities in an expanding outflow.
M dwarf stars are excellent candidates around which to search for exoplanets, including temperate, Earth-sized planets. To evaluate the photochemistry of the planetary atmosphere, it is essential to characterize the UV spectral energy distribution of the planets host star. This wavelength regime is important because molecules in the planetary atmosphere such as oxygen and ozone have highly wavelength dependent absorption cross sections that peak in the UV (900-3200 $r{A}$). We seek to provide a broadly applicable method of estimating the UV emission of an M dwarf, without direct UV data, by identifying a relationship between non-contemporaneous optical and UV observations. Our work uses the largest sample of M dwarf star far- and near-UV observations yet assembled. We evaluate three commonly-observed optical chromospheric activity indices -- H$alpha$ equivalent widths and log$_{10}$ L$_{Halpha}$/L$_{bol}$, and the Mount Wilson Ca II H&K S and R$_{HK}$ indices -- using optical spectra from the HARPS, UVES, and HIRES archives and new HIRES spectra. Archival and new Hubble Space Telescope COS and STIS spectra are used to measure line fluxes for the brightest chromospheric and transition region emission lines between 1200-2800 $r{A}$. Our results show a correlation between UV emission line luminosity normalized to the stellar bolometric luminosity and Ca II R$_{HK}$ with standard deviations of 0.31-0.61 dex (factors of $sim$2-4) about the best-fit lines. We also find correlations between normalized UV line luminosity and H$alpha$ log$_{10}$ L$_{Halpha}$/L$_{bol}$ and the S index. These relationships allow one to estimate the average UV emission from M0 to M9 dwarfs when UV data are not available.
Reconstructions of past irradiance variations require suitable data on solar activity. The longest direct proxy is the sunspot number, and it has been most widely employed for this purpose. These data, however, only provide information on the surface magnetic field emerging in sunspots, while a suitable proxy of the evolution of the bright magnetic features, specifically faculae/plage and network, is missing. This information can potentially be extracted from the historical full-disc observations in the Ca II K line. We have analysed over 100,000 historical images from 8 digitised photographic archives of the Arcetri, Kodaikanal, McMath-Hulbert, Meudon, Mitaka, Mt Wilson, Schauinsland, and Wendelstein observatories, as well as one archive of modern observations from the Rome/PSPT. The analysed data cover the period 1893--2018. We first performed careful photometric calibration and compensation for the centre-to-limb variation, and then segmented the images to identify plage regions. This has been consistently applied to both historical and modern observations. The plage series derived from different archives are generally in good agreement with each other. However, there are also clear deviations that most likely hint at intrinsic differences in the data and their digitisation. We showed that accurate image processing significantly reduces errors in the plage area estimates. Accurate photometric calibration also allows precise plage identification on images from different archives without the need to arbitrarily adjust the segmentation parameters. Finally, by comparing the plage area series from the various records, we found the conversion laws between them. This allowed us to produce a preliminary composite of the plage areas obtained from all the datasets studied here. This is a first step towards an accurate assessment of the long-term variation of plage regions.
Observations from the textit{Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph} (textsl{IRIS}) often reveal significantly broadened and non-reversed profiles of the Mg II h, k and triplet lines at flare ribbons. To understand the formation of these optically thick Mg II lines, we perform plane parallel radiative hydrodynamics modeling with the RADYN code, and then recalculate the Mg II line profiles from RADYN atmosphere snapshots using the radiative transfer code RH. We find that the current RH code significantly underestimates the Mg II h & k Stark widths. By implementing semi-classical perturbation approximation results of quadratic Stark broadening from the STARK-B database in the RH code, the Stark broadenings are found to be one order of magnitude larger than those calculated from the current RH code. However, the improved Stark widths are still too small, and another factor of 30 has to be multiplied to reproduce the significantly broadened lines and adjacent continuum seen in observations. Non-thermal electrons, magnetic fields, three-dimensional effects or electron density effect may account for this factor. Without modifying the RADYN atmosphere, we have also reproduced non-reversed Mg II h & k profiles, which appear when the electron beam energy flux is decreasing. These profiles are formed at an electron density of $sim 8times10^{14} mathrm{cm}^{-3}$ and a temperature of $sim1.4times10^4$ K, where the source function slightly deviates from the Planck function. Our investigation also demonstrates that at flare ribbons the triplet lines are formed in the upper chromosphere, close to the formation heights of the h & k lines.
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