Astron. Astrophys. 343, 983-989 (1999)

Height variation of the solar granulation

J. Krieg, M. Wunnenberg, F. Kneer, M. Koschinsky and C. Ritter

Universitäts-Sternwarte Göttingen, Geismarlandstrasse 11, D-37083 Göttingen, Germany

Received 29 October 1998 / Accepted 22 December 1998

Abstract

We analyze spectral scans of narrow-band images across the Na D₂ line. They were obtained from disc centre of the Sun with our Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) in the Vacuum Tower Telescope at the Observatorio del Teide. The FPI was set to a bandwidth of 200 mÅ FWHM and the spectral stepwidth was 100 mÅ. Our aim is to study the variation of the granulation pattern with height in the atmosphere. To achieve high spatial resolution the simultaneously taken broad-band images are restored with speckle methods. With the knowledge of these reconstructed images we were also able to restore the narrow-band images. The formation heights are found from temperature response functions . In the wings of NaD₂, the response functions for different wavelengths exhibit a substantial overlap in atmospheric heights. Therefore we use linear combinations which allow a better height discrimination. Applying the same combinations to the D₂ images we can visualize the height variation of the granular pattern. The granular intensity fluctuations are a matter of the deep photosphere alone. They disappear at heights of about 100 km (above ).

Key words: techniques: image processing techniques: spectroscopic Sun: granulation Sun: photosphere

Send offprint requests to: J. Krieg (jkrieg@uni-sw.gwdg.de)

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Contents

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Observations
• 3. Data analysis and image restoration
  • 3.1. Pre-reduction
  • 3.2. Speckle reconstruction
  • 3.3. Restoration of narrow-band images
• 4. Temperature response functions
• 5. Results and discussion
• 6. Conclusion and outlook
• Acknowledgements
• References

© European Southern Observatory (ESO) 1999

Online publication: March 1, 1999
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