CHROMOSPHERIC PLASMA PARAMETERS

INTRODUCTION
	Most of the electromagnetic emission of a solar flare appears to originate in the chromosphere, and indeed all of the mass elevated into the corona must come from this layer of the solar atmosphere as well. Thus we really need to understand the plasma physics of this region. Unfortunately our astronomical observations of the chromosphere are fleeting and incomplete - without instrumentation, the chromosphere only appears to the human eye during a total eclipse. So, to understand the plasma physics we must rely upon numerical models. In this Nugget we describe [Web pages] that provide some information about the values of typical plasma-physics parameters in the solar chromosphere.
	The definitions of many plasma parameters can be found via Wikipedia or the NRL Plasma Formulary. Our [Web pages] have applied these definitions to a set of model chromospheres derived by [Juan Fontenla]. In this Nugget, we introduce a new webpage that houses various plasma parameters and their respective plots using three of the models tabulated by Fontenla. These models were chosen to represent a range in physical conditions from the quiet sun to the sunspot umbra.  

MODELS, PLOTS & DATA

	Fontenla has published work on his models and derived plasma parameters, but this website provides these tools for the public.  The home page contains links to the Fontenla models we used, plots of parameters from the models, and derived parameters we calculated.  Each link will take the user to a page comprised of a brief description of the parameter, the equation used to derive it, and a plot that shows the parameter plotted against height (Figure 1).  [[Image:133fig1.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Figure 1: Plots show parameters from each model vs. height. Fontenla Model 1001 (blue), Model 1005 (red), and Model 1006 (green).]]  Visitors can also obtain the Fontenla model data we used and the data produced from the calculations by downloading the .txt files.  To make things as user-friendly as possible, we also included a downloadable reader that will take the .txt files and read them in IDL.  (Note: the downloadable readers on each page are different, but have essentially the same skeletal structure.  The only differences will be which parameter is included and how many variables are provided.)

http://iopscience.iop.org/1538-4357/706/1/L12
mine

http://iopscience.iop.org/0004-637X/639/1/441
models