Stable Umbral Chromospheric Structures

Aims. To understand the morphology of the chromosphere in sunspot umbra. We investigate if the horizontal structures observed in the spectral core of the Ca II H line are ephemeral visuals caused by the shock dynamics of more stable structures, and examine their relationship with observables in the H-alpha line. Methods. Filtergrams in the core of the Ca II H and H-alpha lines as observed with the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope are employed. We utilise a technique that creates composite images and tracks the flash propagation horizontally. Results. We find 015 wide horizontal structures, in all of the three target sunspots, for every flash where the seeing was moderate to good. Discrete dark structures are identified that are stable for at least two umbral flashes, as well as systems of structures that live for up to 24 minutes. We find cases of extremely extended structures with similar stability, with one such structure showing an extent of 5. Some of these structures have a correspondence in H-alpha but we were unable to find a one to one correspondence for every occurrence. If the dark streaks are formed at the same heights as umbral flashes then there are systems of structures with strong departures from the vertical for all three analysed sunspots. Conclusions. Long-lived Ca II H filamentary horizontal structures are a common and likely ever-present feature in the umbra of sunspots. If the magnetic field in the chromosphere of the umbra is indeed aligned with the structures, then the present theoretical understanding of the typical umbra needs to be revisited.

3D Temperature Mapping of Solar Photospheric Fine Structure Using Ca II H Filtergrams

Context. The wings of the Ca II H and K lines provide excellent photospheric temperature diagnostics. At the Swedish 1-meter Solar Telescope the blue wing of Ca II H is scanned with a narrowband interference filter mounted on a rotation stage. This provides up to 010 spatial resolution filtergrams at high cadence that are concurrent with other diagnostics at longer wavelengths. Aims. The aim is to develop observational techniques that provide the photospheric temperature stratification at the highest spatial resolution possible and use those to compare simulations and observations at different heights. Methods. We use filtergrams in the Ca II H blue wing obtained with a tiltable interference filter at the SST. Synthetic observations are produced from 3D HD and 3D MHD numerical simulations and degraded to match the observations. The temperature structure obtained from applying the method to the synthetic data is compared with the known structure in the simulated atmospheres and with observations of an active region. Cross-correlation techniques using restored non-simultaneous continuum images are used to reduce high-altitude, small-scale seeing signal introduced from the non-simultaneity of the frames when differentiating data. Results. Temperature extraction using high resolution filtergrams in the Ca II H blue wing works reasonably well when tested with simulated 3D atmospheres. The cross-correlation technique successfully compensates the problem of small-scale seeing differences and provides a measure of the spurious signal from this source in differentiated data. Synthesized data from the simulated atmospheres (including pores) match well the observations morphologically at different observed heights and in vertical temperature gradients.