Bibcode
Asplund, M.; Nordlund, Å.; Trampedach, R.; Allende Prieto, C.; Stein, R. F.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, v.359, p.729-742 (2000)
Advertised on:
7
2000
Journal
Citations
355
Refereed citations
280
Description
Realistic ab-initio 3D, radiative-hydrodynamical convection simulations
of the solar granulation have been applied to Fe i and Fe ii line
formation. In contrast to classical analyses based on hydrostatic 1D
model atmospheres the procedure contains no adjustable free parameters
but the treatment of the numerical viscosity in the construction of the
3D, time-dependent, inhomogeneous model atmosphere and the elemental
abundance in the 3D spectral synthesis. However, the numerical viscosity
is introduced purely for numerical stability purposes and is determined
from standard hydrodynamical test cases with no adjustments allowed to
improve the agreement with the observational constraints from the solar
granulation. The non-thermal line broadening is mainly provided by the
Doppler shifts arising from the convective flows in the solar
photosphere and the solar oscillations. The almost perfect agreement
between the predicted temporally and spatially averaged line profiles
for weak Fe lines with the observed profiles and the absence of trends
in derived abundances with line strengths, seem to imply that the micro-
and macroturbulence concepts are obsolete in these 3D analyses.
Furthermore, the theoretical line asymmetries and shifts show a very
satisfactory agreement with observations with an accuracy of typically
50-100 m s-1 on an absolute velocity scale. The remaining
minor discrepancies point to how the convection simulations can be
refined further.