Solar Radius at Sub-Terahertz Frequencies

Abstract

The visible surface of the Sun, or photosphere, is defined as the solar radius in the optical spectrum range located at 696,000 km (Cox et al. (Ed. 2015)). However, as the altitude increases, the dominant electromagnetic radiation is emitted at other frequencies. Our aim is to measure the solar radius at frequencies of 212 GHz and 405 GHz through out a solar cycle and, therefore, the altitude where these emissions are generated and that variation along the years. Also we tried to verify the the radius dependence on the solar activity cycle, which can be a good indicator of the changes that occur in the atmosphere structure. For this, we used data obtained by the Submillimetric Solar Telescope (SST) created from daily scans made by SST from 1990 to 2015. From these scans a 2D map of the solar disk was constructed. The solar radius is then determined by adjusting a circumference to the points where the brightness is half of the quiet Sun level, which is set as the most common temperature value in the solar map, i.e., the mode of the temperature distribution. Thus, we determined the solar radius at 212 and 405 GHz and the altitude of the emissions respectively. For 212 GHz, we obtained a radius of 976.5”±8” (707±4 Mm), whereas for 405 GHz, we obtained 975.0”±8” (707±5 Mm). optical spectrum range