Line formation in solar granulation: I. Fe line shapes, shifts and asymmetries

TL;DR

This paper uses advanced 3D simulations to analyze Fe line formation in solar granulation, achieving high accuracy in reproducing observed line profiles, shifts, and asymmetries without adjustable parameters.

Contribution

It demonstrates that 3D radiative-hydrodynamical simulations can accurately model solar Fe line formation, eliminating the need for micro- and macroturbulence parameters.

Findings

Predicted line profiles match observed profiles for weak Fe lines.

Theoretical line asymmetries and shifts agree with observations within 50-100 m/s.

The approach challenges traditional turbulence concepts in spectral line analysis.

Abstract

Realistic ab-initio 3D, radiative-hydrodynamical convection simulations of the solar granulation have been applied to FeI and FeII 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 on an absolute velocity scale. The remaining minor discrepancies point to how the convection simulations can be refined further.