Quote (Derkaderk @ Apr 12 2012 06:28pm)
you can still analyze the temperature of the core...or at least approximate it accurately enough to know that it's hotter than the corona
No you can't.
SEARCHING FOR OVERTURNING CONVECTION IN PENUMBRAL FILAMENTS: SLIT SPECTROSCOPY
AT 0.2 RESOLUTIONL. R. Bellot Rubio1, R. Schlichenmaier2, and K. Langhans3
Recent numerical simulations of sunspots suggest that overturning convection is responsible for the existence of
penumbral filaments and the Evershed flow, but there is little observational evidence of this process. Here, we
carry out a spectroscopic search for small-scale convective motions in the penumbra of a sunspot located 5◦ away
from the disk center. The position of the spot is very favorable for the detection of overturning downflows at the
edges of penumbral filaments. Our analysis is based on measurements of the Fe i 709.0 nm line taken with the
Littrow spectrograph of the Swedish 1 m Solar Telescope under excellent seeing conditions. We compute line
bisectors at different intensity levels and derive Doppler velocities from them. The velocities are calibrated using
a nearby telluric line, with systematic errors smaller than 150 m s−1. Deep in the photosphere, as sampled by
the bisectors at the 80%–88% intensity levels, we always observe blueshifts or zero velocities. The maximum
blueshifts reach 1.2 km s−1 and tend to be cospatial with bright penumbral filaments. In the line core, we detect
blueshifts for the most part, with small velocities not exceeding 300 m s−1. Redshifts also occur, but at the level of
100–150 m s−1, and only occasionally.
The fact that they are visible in high layers casts doubts on their convective
origin. Overall, we do not find indications of downflows that could be associated with overturning convection at
our detection limit of 150 m s−1. Either no downflows exist, or we have been unable to observe them because
they occur beneath τ = 1 or the spatial resolution/height resolution of the measurements is still insufficient.This post was edited by AEtheric on Apr 12 2012 07:03pm