A Numerical Method for the Visualization of the Fe XIV Emission in the Solar Corona Using Broadband Filters

A Numerical Method for the Visualization of the Fe XIV Emission in the Solar Corona Using Broadband Filters

WoS Article

The goal of this article is to demonstrate how the emission from the Fe XIV 530.3 nm coronal emission line, also known as the green line, can be extracted from images taken during total solar eclipses with commercially available color cameras. This concept is technically feasible because Fe XIV is the brightest optical emission line in the inner corona, and because the sensors of these cameras are retrofitted with a standard Bayer mask, namely, a square grid of spectrally broad (about 100 nm) green, blue, and red filters in the ratio of 2:1:1. The technique presented here, and developed for this purpose, yields qualitatively accurate Fe XIV images, as tested by comparing with Fe XIV eclipse images taken with a 0.15 nm narrow-bandpass filter. While this approach cannot replace narrow-bandpass Fe XIV images for quantitative studies of the corona, it provides a simple and affordable tool for studying the morphology of coronal structures emitting preferentially at the peak ionization temperature of Fe XIV, namely, 1.8 x 10^6 K.

The goal of this article is to demonstrate how the emission from the Fe XIV 530.3 nm coronal emission line, also known as the green line, can be extracted from images taken during total solar eclipses with commercially available color cameras. This concept is technically feasible because Fe XIV is the brightest optical emission line in the inner corona, and because the sensors of these cameras are retrofitted with a standard Bayer mask, namely, a square grid of spectrally broad (about 100 nm) green, blue, and red filters in the ratio of 2:1:1. The technique presented here, and developed for this purpose, yields qualitatively accurate Fe XIV images, as tested by comparing with Fe XIV eclipse images taken with a 0.15 nm narrow-bandpass filter. While this approach cannot replace narrow-bandpass Fe XIV images for quantitative studies of the corona, it provides a simple and affordable tool for studying the morphology of coronal structures emitting preferentially at the peak ionization temperature of Fe XIV, namely, 1.8 x 10^6 K.

methods: data analysis – methods: numerical – Sun: corona – techniques: image processing

methods: data analysis – methods: numerical – Sun: corona – techniques: image processing

MARTIŠEK, K.; DRUCKMÜLLEROVÁ, H.

2012

23.11.2011

IOP Publising

Bristol, UK

0067-0049

ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL SUPPLEMENT SERIES

197

2

United States of America

23

29

7