Quiescent Prominences in the Era of ALMA. II. Kinetic Temperature Diagnostics

0494944 - ASÚ 2019 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Gunár, Stanislav - Heinzel, Petr - Anzer, U. - Mackay, D. H.
Quiescent Prominences in the Era of ALMA. II. Kinetic Temperature Diagnostics.
Astrophysical Journal. Roč. 853, č. 1 (2018), č. článku 21. ISSN 0004-637X. E-ISSN 1538-4357
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA16-17586S
Institutional support: RVO:67985815
Keywords : numerical methods * radiative transfer * filaments
OECD category: Astronomy (including astrophysics,space science)
Impact factor: 5.580, year: 2018

We provide the theoretical background for diagnostics of the thermal properties of solar prominences observed by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). We can thus assess whether the measure of the kinetic temperature derived from observations accurately represents the actual kinetic temperature properties of the observed plasma. We demonstrate here that in a given pixel the optical thickness at the wavelength at which the prominence plasma is optically thick needs to be above unity or even larger to achieve a sufficient accuracy of the derived information about the kinetic temperature of the analyzed plasma. Information about the optical thickness cannot be directly discerned from observations at the SMM wavelengths alone. However, we show that a criterion that can identify those pixels in which the derived kinetic temperature values correspond well to the actual thermal properties in which the observed prominence can be established.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0288000