Improving the Ni I atomic model for solar and stellar atmospheric models

TL;DR

This paper enhances the Ni I atomic model for solar and stellar atmospheres by including more energy levels and spectral lines, leading to improved spectral irradiance calculations crucial for Earth's atmospheric studies.

Contribution

The paper introduces a more comprehensive Ni I atomic model with 61 levels and 490 spectral lines, improving spectral irradiance predictions in the near-UV range.

Findings

Significant improvement in solar spectral irradiance calculations.

Better modeling of Ni I's role in solar UV emission and absorption.

Enhanced accuracy for Earth's atmospheric and ozone chemistry studies.

Abstract

Neutral nickel (Ni I) is abundant in the solar atmosphere and is one of the important elements that contribute to the emission and absorption of radiation in the spectral range between 1900 and 3900 A. Previously, the Solar Radiation Physical Modeling (SRPM) models of the solar atmosphere considered only few levels of this species. Here we improve the Ni I atomic model by taking into account 61 levels and 490 spectral lines. We compute the populations of these levels in full NLTE using the SRPM code and compare the resulting emerging spectrum with observations. The present atomic model improves significantly the calculation of the solar spectral irradiance at near-UV wavelengths that are important for Earth atmo spheric studies, and particularly for ozone chemistry.