Correlative relationships in an inhomogeneous solar atmosphere

A.S. Gadun 1 - A. Hanslmeier 2 - A. Kucera 3 - J. Rybák 3 - H. Wöhl 4

1 - Main Astronomical Observatory of Ukrainian NAS, Goloseevo, 03680 Kiev-127, Ukraine
2 - Institut for Geophysics, Astrophysics and Meteorology Universitätsplatz 5, A-8010 Graz, Austria
3 - Astronomical Institute, Slovak Academy of Sciences, SK-05960 Tatranská Lomnica, Slovakia
4 - Kiepenheuer-Institute für Sonnenphysik, Schöneckstr. 6, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany

Abstract:

Correlative relationships between various quantities of d inhomogeneous time-dependent solar atmospheres are analysed to be directly related to height-dependent correlations found for observational spectral scans. We detect four photospheric regions with thermal and overshooting convection, transition zone, and fully oscillating layers. The correlations found for the model data and those computed within simulated spectral scans are a good testing tool for depths of formation in spectral lines if these correlations are analysed in comparison. As an example, we examine two criteria, providing heights of line core formation in LTE, and show that the approach which defines this quantity as geometrical height at line center optical depth $\tau_{\lambda 0}$ = 1 is more suitable for diagnostic purpose than the method based on depression contribution function.

Keywords : hydrodynamics - line formation - Sun: granulation - Sun: photosphere