On the center-to-limb variations of the He I 10 830 Ã triplet

Abstract

We present high-resolution spectroscopic observations of the quiet-Sun center-to-limb variations (CLV) of the He I triplet at 10 830 Ã and the nearby Si I 10 827 Ã line, observed with GREGOR Infrared Spectrograph (GRIS) and the improved High-resolution Fast Imager (HiFI+). The observations cover the interval $\hat{I}¼=[0.1,1.0]$, where $\hat{I}¼$ is the cosine of the heliocentric angle. At each $\hat{I}¼$-position, the spectra are spatially averaged over 0.02 $\hat{I}¼$, and the resulting CLVs are given both as these averaged data points and as smooth polynomial curves fitted across each wavelength point. The He I spectra were inverted using the HAnle and ZEeman Light (HAZEL) code, showing an increase in optical depth towards the limb and a reversed convective blueshift for the red component, while the blue component was entirely absent. In addition, we find a strong increase in the steepness of the He I CLV compared to that of the nearby continuum. The Si I showed a behavior more typical of photospheric lines, namely shallower CLV, a reduction in width and depth, and a more typical convective blueshift.

Published in A&A. 6 pages, 6 figures. CLV data is released on the CDS