The Case against Cold, Dark Chromospheres

Is the solar chromosphere always hot, with relatively small temperature variations (δ T / T ~ 0.1), or is it cold most of the time, with temperature fluctuations that reach δ T / T ~ 10 at the top of the chromosphere? Or, equivalently, is the chromosphere heated continually or only for a few seconds once every 3 minutes? Two types of empirical model, one essentially time independent and always hot, the other highly time dependent and mostly cold, come to fundamentally different conclusions. This paper analyzes the time-dependent model of the quiet, nonmagnetic chromosphere by Carlsson & Stein and shows that it predicts deep absorption lines, none of which are observed; intensity fluctuations in the Lyman continuum that are much larger than observed; and time-averaged emission that falls far short of the observed emission. The paper concludes that the solar chromosphere, while time-dependent, is never cold and dark. The same conclusion applies for stellar chromospheres. A complete, time-dependent model of the nonmagnetic chromosphere must describe two phenomena: (1) dynamics, like that modeled by Carlsson & Stein for chromospheric bright points but corrected for the geometrical properties of shocks propagating in an upward-expanding channel, and (2) the energetically more important general, sustained heating of the chromosphere, as described by current time-independent empirical models but modified in the upper photosphere for the formation of molecular absorption lines of CO in a dynamical medium. This model is always hot and, except for absorption features caused by departures from local thermodynamic equilibrium, shows chromospheric lines only in emission.