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The Sun as a Guide
to Stellar Physics
Edited by
Oddbjørn Engvold
Professor emeritus, Rosseland Centre for Solar Physics, Institute of
Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Jean-Claude Vial
Emeritus Senior Scientist, Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale,
CNRS-Universite´ Paris-Sud, Orsay, France
Andrew Skumanich
Emeritus Senior Scientist, High Altitude Observatory, National Center
for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, United States
Elsevier
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Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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This book and the individual contributions contained in it are protected under copyright by the Publisher
(other than as may be noted herein).
Notices
Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience broaden
our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical treatment may become
necessary.
Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and
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material herein.
xv
xvi List of Contributors
A.L. MacKinnon
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United
Kingdom
Hardi Peter
Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, Göttingen, Germany
E.R. Priest
School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St. Andrews, St Andrews
KY16 9SS, United Kingdom
Alexander I. Shapiro
Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, Göttingen, Germany
Andrew Skumanich
Senior Scientist Emeritus, High Altitude Observatory, National Center for
Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, United States
Sami K. Solanki
Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, Göttingen, Germany; School of
Space Research, Kyung Hee University, Yongin, Korea
Alan Title
Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center, Physics Department Stanford
University Hanover Street, Palo Alto, California, United States
Jean-Claude Vial
Senior Scientist Emeritus, Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, CNRS-Université
Paris-Sud, Orsay, France
Jack B. Zirker
National Solar Observatory, Sunspot, NM, United States
Preface
It has been said that solar physics is astronomy with a zoom lens. Modern observa-
tions of the Sun yield overwhelming complex details and dynamics of its variable
corona, chromosphere, photosphere, and heliosphere, with ever-increasing spatial
and temporal resolution. Observations and theory have led to the entirely new field
of helioseismology. The Sun is generally assumed to represent a typical case of cool,
magnetically active stars. However, it remains to be proven that the Sun qualifies
fully as a “standard” star. Solarestellar comparisons are mutually beneficial to
both fields as well for a number of fields in physics.
The aim of The Sun as a Guide to Stellar Physics is to review and illustrate how
“proxima solaris,” where structures and time variabilities can be studied in detail
from a full solar disk, have led to breakthroughs and progress in stellar science,
as well as new discoveries and insight in associated areas of physics. This involves
observations, theories, modeling, numerical simulations, instrumentation, and data
processing. The 17 individual chapters represent various solar physics subfields.
A brief overview of why interest in studying the Sun started and how is followed
by more detailed descriptions and discussions of observational challenges and pos-
sibilities, a theoretical understanding, and modeling capacities behind the current
level of insight and knowledge.
This book is prepared and written by solar and stellar physicists for a broader
audience of interested astronomers, astrophysicists, and physicists.
The editors are most grateful to the 19 authors for their enthusiasm and willing-
ness to contribute to the various specialized chapters. The insight and expertise of
the chapter authors have been vital for the presentations of interpretations and under-
standing of frequently intricate interrelated solar phenomena. A multiauthor book
will inevitably also risk repetitions in description and interpretation of particular
phenomena in chapters covering related issues. Because authors often have their
personal style and the book is aiming for a broad audience of readers, repeated de-
scriptions and explanations of a discovery or idea as examined under different lights
may be valuable to the reader.
The editors deeply thank R.M. Bonnet, J. Harvey, M. Knoelker, J. Leibacher, and
S. Tremaine for their encouragements and B. Fleck for his help in this endeavor.
Oddbjørn Engvold
Jean-Claude Vial
Andrew Skumanich
xvii
CHAPTER
CHAPTER OUTLINE
1. The Solar Constant ................................................................................................. 2
2. The Sun’s Chemical Composition............................................................................. 3
2.1 Spectroscopic Methods............................................................................ 3
2.2 Modeling of the Sun’s Atmosphere............................................................ 4
2.3 Settling of Light Elements........................................................................ 5
3. Internal Structure and Helioseismology ................................................................... 6
3.1 Detection of Oscillatory Pattern ................................................................ 6
3.2 Interpretation of Solar Oscillations............................................................ 7
4. The Magnetic Sun and Its Variability ....................................................................... 8
4.1 Solar Cycle ............................................................................................. 9
4.2 Magnetic Fields ...................................................................................... 9
4.3 Internal Structure and Location of the Magnetic Dynamo .......................... 10
5. The Solar Corona and Wind .................................................................................. 11
5.1 The Temperature of the Corona............................................................... 11
5.2 The Shape of the Corona........................................................................ 13
5.3 The Solar Wind ..................................................................................... 13
6. EartheSun Connection.......................................................................................... 14
6.1 Aurora and Geomagnetic Storms............................................................. 14
6.2 The Carrington Event ............................................................................. 15
6.3 Solar Flares, X-Rays and Energetic Particles ............................................ 16
6.4 Reconnection of Magnetic Fields ............................................................ 17
6.5 Coronal Mass Ejections.......................................................................... 18
7. Testing Two Concepts ........................................................................................... 19
7.1 Neutrino Oscillations in the Sun ............................................................. 19
7.2 Testing General Relativity ...................................................................... 22
8. Concluding Remarks............................................................................................. 23
Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................... 24
References ............................................................................................................... 24
FIGURE 1.1
Active cavity radiometer irradiation monitor measurements of solar constant during 11-
year sunspot cycles (Foukal et al., 2006).
lowercase letters. Physicist Gustav Kirchoff, also from Germany, realized that the
dark lines corresponded to the emission lines that he and his colleague Robert Bun-
sen observed in emission from heated gases. Kirchhoff concluded that the lines on
the spectrum of the Sun were dark because they resulted from absorption by cooler
layers of gas in the Sun’s atmosphere above hotter layers where the continuous emis-
sion spectrum originated. Kirchhoff’s formulated the following three laws that
enabled solar scientists to exploit the potential of spectrometry in chemical
analysis of the Sun and subsequently in stars: (1) A solid, liquid, or dense gas
excited to emit light will radiate at all wavelengths and thus produce a continuous
spectrum; (2) a low-density gas excited to emit light will do so at specific wave-
lengths, and this produces an emission spectrum; and (3) if light composing a contin-
uous spectrum passes through a cool, low-density gas, the result will be an
absorption spectrum.
The emission spectra of elements, which could be vaporized by the Bunsen
burner, were examined and compared with solar absorption line spectra. This
became a truly fundamental astrophysical tool and a breakthrough in the science
of astronomy. Kirchoff and Bunsen discovered lines from cesium and rubidium in
the Sun. Swiss mathematician and physicist Johann Jakob Balmer observed the
visible line spectrum of hydrogen and determined its wavelengths. The dominant
red Fraunhofer line C, at wavelength 6563 Å, is referred to by astronomers as Ha
of the Balmer series.
At a solar eclipse in India in 1868, French astronomer Pierre-Jules Janssen
recorded the emission spectrum of a solar prominence, which contained a yellow
line (Fraunhofer’s D3) at 5875 Å, which had not yet been seen in laboratory spectra.
This led Janssen and his contemporaries to conclude that it must represent a purely
solar element, which soon was named helium after helios, the Greek word for “Sun.”
In 1895, Swedish chemists Cleve and Langlet could confirm the presence of terres-
trial helium gas coming out of a uranium ore called cleveite.
The availability of spectral data and an understanding of the origin of the absorp-
tion lines stimulated development of analytical techniques to determine the consti-
tution and structure of the solar atmosphere, including its chemical composition.
FIGURE 1.2
Observations of low-wavenumber nonradial eigenmodes of the Sun. The curved lines are
theoretical (Deubner, 1975; Ando and Osaki, 1977).
Even the Sun’s differential rotation was noticed by these very early scientists
(Engvold and Zirker, 2016).
After the remarkable discoveries of sunspots, the Sun’s activity cycle, the pecu-
liar timeelatitude pattern, and the overall magnetic link, Hale et al. (1919) showed
that spots often emerged in bipolar pairs oriented roughly eastewest and that most
westward or “leading” spots in the northern hemisphere have the same magnetic po-
larity during a cycle. Similarly, most of those in the southern hemisphere have the
opposite polarity. Hale’s empirical rule provided fundamental clues about the inter-
action of emerging magnetic fields with the Sun’s differential rotation then thought
to give rise to the spots and their distribution on the solar surface.
In fact, the solar surface contains two types of magnetically active regions. There
are polar and equatorial areas of the Sun, both of which are dominated by magnetic
fields and structures. Work by Grotrian and Künzel (1950) showed that the polar and
equatorial fluxes are comparable in magnitude.
Babcock and Livingston (1958) found that the time of maximum of the polar
fields was delayed by 3 years after sunspot minimum. Sheeley (2008) used solar
faculae visible on white-light images as proxies of magnetic fluxes from a much
longer time period and confirmed that polar magnetic fluxes undergo a cyclic vari-
ation, disappearing at sunspot maximum and appearing in large numbers around
sunspot minimum. These results serve to shed light on the poleward migration of so-
lar magnetic fields.
The cyclic variations in intensity and distribution of magnetic flux on the solar
surface demonstrate that the magnetic cycle is actually 22 years.
The maxima of individual Schwabe cycles vary considerably and it is usual to
distinguish among three long-lasting episodes containing around a dozen cycles,
i.e., Grand maxima, Grand minima, and episodes of regular variations (de Jager
et al., 2016). A long-term trend in the Schwabe cycle amplitude is called the secular
Gleissberg cycle, with the mean period of about 90 years, or rather, a modulation in
the cycle envelope with a varying timescale of 60e120 years (Gleissberg, 1971;
Ogurtsov et al., 2002).
The Sun’s proximity and resulting traceable effects of its variable activity on the
Earth, such as 14C in tree rings and 10Be in polar ice, have enabled reconstructions of
solar activity on multimillennial timescales (Solanki et al., 2004; Usoskin et al.,
2016). According to these reconstructions, the level of solar activity during the
past 70 years is exceptional, and the previous period of equally high activity
occurred more than 8000 years ago. Such reconstructed data from the previous
11,000 years show numerous activity minima of duration ranging from 50 to
150 years.
Eugene Parker showed how isolated toroidal magnetic flux tubes could rise from
the depth of the tachocline layer (see Section 2.3) by magnetic buoyancy through the
convection zone and form sunspots where they break through the solar surface
(Parker, 1955). His work stimulated a search for the origin of solar magnetic fields.
The Solar Dynamo action is discussed in detail in Chapter 7.
Recent progress in our understanding of the solar magnetic dynamo and the na-
ture of the solar tachocline, have stimulated further investigation of the origin of the
variable period of the Schwabe cycles and of the episodes of changing cycle ampli-
tudes. The unusual long-lasting minimum following the previous Schwabe cycle #23
in solar activity, which is being referred to as a transitional period, has inspired
further studies of long term variations in the solar tachocline (de Jager et al., 2016).
Part of the confusion arose from the fact that the outer and inner corona have
different spectra. In 1934, Grotrian separated the two components of the coronal
light using eclipse spectra. He discovered that the K component (K for Kontinuum)
is polarized and decreases in intensity rapidly with increasing distance from the Sun.
He postulated that it is caused by the scattering of free electrons. The F component
(F for Fraunhofer) contains dark lines and falls off slowly with the distance from the
Sun. It is caused by diffraction by solid dust particles along the line of sight to the
Sun. Near the Sun, the dust evaporates. Thus, the inner corona is predominantly K
and the outer corona is predominantly F.
Grotrian thought he found a clue to the temperature of the electrons that produce
the K corona (Grotrian, 1933). When he examined the spectrum taken at the total
eclipse of 1929, he discovered that it lacked the dark lines almost entirely. However,
at the wavelengths at which two exceptionally broad and dark lines of ionized cal-
cium appeared in the spectrum of the solar disk (3933 and 3358 Å), a weak depres-
sion of the continuum appeared. It was only a few percent deep and over 100 Å wide.
If confirmed, it would suggest that the particles that scatter photospheric light
broaden the calcium lines almost to the point of extinction by virtue of their Doppler
effect. That would imply a very high temperature for the K corona.
Unfortunately, observations at later eclipses failed to confirm Grotrian’s broad,
shallow depression. The precision of his measurements have also been called into
question (Menzel and Pasachoff, 1968).
Grotrian was not deterred, however,. He was about to make a crucial connection.
In 1939, he received preliminary measurements of the energy levels of atoms that
had lost 10 or more valence electrons. Bengt Edlén, a Swedish physicist, had deter-
mined these levels from the extreme UV spectra of excited atoms. He forwarded
these data to Grotrian in preparation for a report on the nebular phases of novae
at the Paris meeting on novae.
Grotrian noticed that the separation of two energy levels of Fe X (nine times
ionized iron) corresponded to the wavelength of the coronal red line at 6374 Å. Simi-
larly, the separation of two levels of Fe XI corresponded to the wavelength of the
coronal line at 7892 Å.
According to P. Swings (1943), Edlén became deeply interested in Grotrian’s
remark. From his unpublished measurements of the spectra of Ca XII and XIII,
he found coincidences with two faint coronal lines at 3328 and 4086 Å. Assuming
these four identifications to be correct, he predicted the forbidden lines of Fe XIII,
XIV, Ni XII, and others. He found more coincidences too remarkable to be caused by
pure chance.
The coronal spectrum problem was solved! These highly ionized atoms could
only be formed in a plasma at temperatures of 1e3 million K.
Confirmation of the high temperature of the corona was not long in coming. On
Sep. 29, 1949, Herbert Friedman and his colleagues at the US Naval Research Lab-
oratory launched a V-2 rocket that carried an x-ray photon counter to an altitude of
150 km (Friedman et al., 1951). X-rays of 8 Å were detected above 87 km and UV
radiation around 1200 and 1500 Å above 70 and 95 km, respectively. But what were
5. The Solar Corona and Wind 13
the physical implications? What could heat the corona to such temperatures? Surely,
the mechanism had to be nonthermal because heat does not flow from low to high
temperatures. This question would challenge solar astronomers for the next 70 years
(Zirker and Engvold, 2017).
The relative abundances of different stages of ionization of an element could be
predicted later with the development of the nonlocal thermodynamic equilibrium
theory. Stellar astrophysics has benefitted considerably from the application of the
theory, as applied to atmospheres of extremely low particle density, the “coronal
approximation.” The theory has been developed further to cover multilevel atoms
and radiative transfer in denser atmospheres.
6. EARTHeSUN CONNECTION
6.1 AURORA AND GEOMAGNETIC STORMS
The auroral polar light displays in the northern and southern hemispheres are now
seen as the most dramatic visual feature of a whole new science referred to as space
weather (cf. Chapter 10). Our current understanding of the central aspects of Earthe
Sun connections is based on tireless efforts by many scientists over 250 years. The
connections include several components: coronal mass ejections (CMEs), the solar
wind, flare particle and x-ray emissions, geomagnetic storms, and auroras.
Northern lights, i.e., the Aurora Borealis, are one of nature’s most spectacular
light phenomena that can be observed with the naked eye. Through millennia, north-
ern lights have triggered the human imagination, curiosity, and fear, as reflected in a
number of mythologies from those of Nordic areas where the northern lights occur
most frequently to those of North Dakota Indians and that of Tiberius Caesar Augus-
tus in Rome, where the aurora shows up occasionally. The 17th century French sci-
entist Pierre Gassendi applied the name “aurora” to the northern lights after Aurora,
the Goddess of Dawn in Roman mythology, which has become the commonly used
name for the northern lights. Figure 1.3 shows an aurora display observed from the
Svalbard archipelago.
FIGURE 1.3
An aurora display observed from the European Incoherent Scatter Scientific Association
(EISCAT) antenna site in the Svalbard archipelago on Nov. 10, 2010. The characteristic upper
red emission from above 200 km results from the 6300Å line of atomic oxygen whereas the
100e200 km region is dominated by the green line at 5577 Å, also from oxygen.
Credit: Dr. Njål Gulbrandsen, University of Tromsø, Norway.
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part of the design of the Creation. But as the actual design in the
Creation is concealed from man’s searching eye, so is also the
extent of the predetermination a mystery to him. To solve this
problem is beyond the intellectual powers of short-sighted mortals; it
is one of “the hidden things that belong to the Lord our God.”
One of the Psalmists (Asaph; Ps. lxxiii. 2 seq.) confesses that this
problem had greatly troubled him and endangered his faith. He says:
“As for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh
slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity
of the wicked. For there are no bands in their death; but their
strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are
they plagued like other men.… Therefore his people return hither:
and waters of a full cup are wrung out by them. And they say, How
doth God know? and is there knowledge [153]in the Most High?
Behold, these are the wicked, and being always at ease, they
increase in riches. Surely in vain have I cleansed my heart, and
washed my hands in innocency; for all the day long have I been
plagued, and chastened every morning. If I had said, I will speak
thus; behold, I had dealt treacherously with the generation of thy
children. When I think how I might know this, it is trouble in mine
eyes: until I come into the sanctuary of God; then shall I consider
their latter end.” The temporary success and seeming prosperity of
the wicked does not shake the firm belief of the singer in the justice
of God; his communion with God, his coming into the sanctuaries of
God, is a blessing which the soul of the pious yearns for, and in
comparison with which all the wealth and power of the wicked is but
a deceitful shadow.
The Book of Job illustrates the vanity of man’s attempts to lift the veil
that conceals the plan of God’s decrees. The reader is informed
beforehand why Job is afflicted with pains and troubles. But Job and
his friends have not been informed. Job desires to know what act of
his has brought upon him that terrible calamity, if it is to be endured
as a punishment; he protests his innocence, and criticises the justice
of the Almighty. The three friends declare with certainty that Job’s
sufferings are a punishment for sins committed, and are angry that
Job does not accept their view.
God appears, rebukes Job for his presumption, but declares that the
view expressed by his friends, insinuating sinful conduct to Job, was
wrong, and that Job, [154]who contended that he did not know the
cause of the suffering, spoke more rightly than his friends. For Job
had not been afflicted because of his sins, and this was shown to the
friends of Job by the compensation which God gave Job for all that
he had lost and suffered.
“For evil-doers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord,
they shall inherit the land” (xxxvii. 9).
“For the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are
preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off” (Ibid.
28).
“Mark the perfect man; and behold the upright: for the latter end of
that man is peace. As for transgressors, they shall be destroyed
together; the latter end of the wicked shall be cut off” (Ibid. 37, 38).
In these and similar passages the pious and enthusiastic singer has
in his mind something more durable and permanent than this short
life, or otherwise the conflict between his hopes and the reality would
have shaken his faith.
The distinction given to Israel and to his land will again appear in all
its glory. Israel is punished, deprived of independence, even
despised and ill-treated at times; but with all this he is loved by God,
and not rejected by Him for ever. Isaiah prophesies as follows:
“Remember these things, O Jacob and Israel, for thou art my
servant: I have formed thee; thou art my servant; O Israel, thou shalt
not be forgotten of me” (Isa. xliv. 21). “For the mountains shall
depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall my covenant of peace be removed, saith the
Lord that hath mercy on thee” (Ibid. liv. 10). Comp. lix. 20, 21; lx. 19–
21; lxvi. 22; Jer. xxxiii. 25, 26; Hos. ii. 21, 22.
The hopes with which our religion inspires us can never lead us to
intrigues, political combinations, insurrection, or warfare for the
purpose of regaining Palestine and appointing a Jewish
Government. On the contrary, our religion teaches us to seek the
welfare of those nations in whose midst we live, and to
conscientiously [162]take part in the work for their national progress
and prosperity, whilst patiently waiting for the miraculous fulfilment of
the prophecies. Even if a band of adventurers were to succeed in
reconquering Palestine for the Jews by means of arms, or
reacquiring the Holy Land by purchasing it from the present owners,
we should not see in such an event the consummation of our hopes.
When will this take place? We do not know, and [163]are content to
bear in mind that the time of our redemption is one of the “hidden
things which are the Lord our God’s;” “If it tarries,” says Habakkuk,
“wait for it, for it will surely come, and not later than the time fixed” (ii.
3). Certain numbers of days and weeks are mentioned in Daniel, 16
but it is not stated how these are to be counted; to which period they
are intended to apply; whether to the time of the restoration under
Zerubbabel, to the period of the Maccabees, to the destruction of the
second Temple, or to the future and final redemption. It is also
possible that these numbers have some symbolic signification. In
reference to these mysterious numbers Daniel says (xii. 8–10): “And
I heard, but I understood not; then said I, O my lord, what shall be
the issue of these things? And he said, Go thy way, Daniel; for the
words are shut up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall
purify themselves and make themselves white, and be refined; but
the wicked shall do wickedly, and none of the wicked shall
understand; but they that be wise shall understand.” These words of
Daniel are a warning to all those who are inclined to compute by
means of the numbers given in Daniel the exact year of Messiah.
Many have disregarded the warning and have fallen into gross error.
It is the duty of the pious Israelite to have faith in God’s wisdom,
goodness, and power: “The righteous shall live in his faith” (Hab. ii.
4).
NOTES.
On page 19 sqq.