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Session 36 - Solar Activity.
Display session, Tuesday, June 11
Tripp Commons,
An IR observation of a solar prominence by Brault and Noyes (1982) showed the surprising intensity of high HI transitions such as 7-6, 9-7, 10-7, 11-8, 12-8 and 15-9, in the 8-12 micron atmospheric window. The 15-9 transition at 11.539 microns is of particular interest as a diagnostic of plasma electric fields (and also of electron density) because of its very large calculated Stark splitting (Casini and Foukal, 1994). We present preliminary results of our spectrapolarimetric measurements on the 15-9 line in prominences using the FTS at the McMath telescope at Kitt Peak. Our observed line profiles agree with the structure calculated for this line in a Holtsmark electric field at the plasma density of the prominence, taking into consideration Zeeman effect in the prominence magnetic field B=10G. We discuss how further spectrapolarimetry of this line could significantly increase the measurement sensitivity of the wave-related and d.c. macroscopic electric fields in the sun and in laboratory plasmas.
This work is supported by the Solar-Terrestrial Program of the National Science Foundation under grant ATM-9301832.
