Abstract
We present a reconstruction of the solar spectrum in the near and mid-ultraviolet spectral range during the Maunder Minimum, a period of strongly suppressed magnetic activity spanning the second half of the 17th century. This spectral reconstruction is based on an extension of the Monte Carlo Solar Spectral Irradiance Model (MOCASSIM). The new version of the model, documented in this paper, extends its spectral range down to 150 nm, its temporal range back to 1610, includes a secular modulation of the quiet-Sun emissivity based on a total solar irradiance reconstruction, and uses the Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science-3 (ATLAS-3) spectrum as a reconstruction baseline. The model is validated against the ATLAS-1 spectrum for 29 March 1992, showing a general agreement varying from ∼ 1 % in the 300 – 400 nm range, up to 3 – 5 % below 200 nm, the largest discrepancies occurring in emission lines formed in the chromosphere and transition region. We also reconstruct ultraviolet spectra for May 2008 and March 2009, spanning the extended phase of low activity separating Cycles 23 and 24. Our results suggest that despite the unusually long temporal extent of this activity minimum, the ultraviolet emission still remained slightly higher than during the Maunder Minimum, due to the lingering presence of decay products from active regions having emerged in the late descending phase of Cycle 23.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Atomic spectral line database, www.pmp.uni-hannover.de/cgi-bin/ssi/test/kurucz/sekur.html .
References
Bolduc, C., Charbonneau, P., Dumoulin, V., Bourqui, M.S., Crouch, A.D.: 2012, A fast model for the reconstruction of spectral solar irradiance in the near- and mid-ultraviolet. Solar Phys. 279, 383.
Charbonneau, P.: 2002, An introduction to genetic algorithms for numerical optimization. NCAR Technical Note 450+IA, 311.
Charbonneau, P., Knapp, B.: 1995, A user’s guide to PIKAIA 1.0. NCAR Technical Note 418+IA, 311.
Crouch, A.D., Charbonneau, P., Beaubien, G., Paquin-Ricard, D.: 2008, A model for the total solar irradiance based on active region decay. Astrophys. J. 677, 723.
Doschek, G.A., Feldman, U., VanHoosier, M.E., Bartoe, J.-D.F.: 1976, The emission-line spectrum above the limb of the quiet Sun: 1175 – 1940 Å. Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 31, 417.
Floyd, L.E., Prinz, D.K., Crane, P.C., Herring, L.C.: 2002, Solar UV irradiance variation during cycle 22 and 23. Adv. Space Res. 29, 1957.
Fontenla, J.M., White, O.R., Fox, P.A., Avrett, E.H., Kurucz, R.L.: 1999, Calculation of solar irradiances. I. Synthesis of the solar spectrum. Astrophys. J. 518, 480.
Fontenla, J.M., Curdt, W., Haberreiter, M., Harder, J., Tian, H.: 2009, Semiempirical models of the solar atmosphere. III. Set of non-LTE models for far-ultraviolet/extreme-ultraviolet irradiance computation. Astrophys. J. 707, 482.
Forster, P., Ramaswamy, V., Artaxo, P., Bernsten, T., Betts, R., Fahey, D.W., Haywood, J., Lean, J., Lowe, D.C., Myhre, G., Nganga, J., Prinn, R., Raga, G., Schulz, M., Dorland, R.V.: 2007, Changes in atmospheric constituents and in radiative forcing. In: Solomon, S., Qin, D., Manning, M., Chen, Z., Marquis, M., Averyt, K.B., Tignor, M., Miller, H.I. (eds.) Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 188.
Fröhlich, C., Crommelynk, D.A., Wehrli, C., Anklin, M., Dewitte, S., Fichot, A., Finsterle, W., Jiménez, A., Chevalier, A., Roth, H.: 1997, In flight performance of the VIRGO solar irradiance instruments on SOHO. Solar Phys. 175, 267.
Gray, L.J., Beer, J., Geller, M., Haigh, J.D., Lockwood, M., Matthes, K., Cubasch, U., Fleitmann, D., Harrison, G., Hood, L., Luterbacher, J., Meehl, G.A., Shindell, D., van Geel, B., White, W.: 2010, Solar influence on climate. Rev. Geophys. 48, RG4001.
Haberreiter, M., Schmutz, W., Hubeny, I.: 2008, NLTE model calculations of the solar atmosphere with an iterative treatment of opacity distribution functions. Astron. Astrophys. 492, 833.
Haigh, J.D., Winning, A.R., Toumi, R., Harder, J.W.: 2010, An influence of solar spectral variations on radiative forcing of climate. Nature 467, 696.
Harder, J.W., Thuillier, G., Richard, E.C., Brown, S.W., Lykke, K.R., Snow, M., McClintock, W.E., Fontenla, J.M., Woods, T.N., Pilewski, P.: 2010, The SORCE SIM solar spectrum: comparison with recent observations. Solar Phys. 263, 3.
Jiang, J., Cameron, R.H., Schmitt, D., Schüssler, M.: 2011, The solar magnetic field since 1700. I. Characteristics of sunspot group emergence and reconstruction of the butterfly diagram. Astron. Astrophys. 528, A82.
Krivova, N.A., Balmaceda, L., Solanki, S.K.: 2007, Reconstruction of solar total irradiance since 1700 from the surface magnetic flux. Astron. Astrophys. 467, 335.
Krivova, N.A., Vieira, L.E.A., Solanki, S.K.: 2010, Reconstruction of solar spectral irradiance since the Maunder minimum. J. Geophys. Res. 115, A12112.
Kurucz, R.L.: 1993, Models. ftp.stsci.edu/cdbs/grid/k93models/kp00/ .
Lean, J.: 2000a, Evolution of the Sun’s spectral irradiance since the Maunder Minimum. Geophys. Res. Lett. 27, 2425.
Lean, J.: 2000b, Short-term, direct indices of solar variability. Space Sci. Rev. 94, 39.
Lean, J., Rottman, G., Harder, J.W., Kopp, G.: 2005, SORCE contribution to new understanding of global change and solar variability. Solar Phys. 230, 27.
Rottman, G.J., Woods, T.N., Snow, M., de Toma, G.: 2001, The solar cycle variation in ultraviolet irradiance. Adv. Space Res. 27, 1927.
Schmutz, W., Fehlmann, A., Hülsen, G., Meindl, P., Winkler, R., Thuillier, G., Blattner, P., Buisson, F., Egorova, T., Finsterle, W., Fox, N., Gröbner, J., Hochedez, J.-F., Koller, S., Meftah, M., Meisonnier, M., Nyeki, S., Pfiffner, D., Roth, H., Rozanov, E., Wehrli, C., Werner, L., Wyss, J.U.: 2009, The PREMOS/PICARD instrument calibration. Metrologia 46, 202.
Shapiro, A.I., Schmutz, W., Rozanov, E.V., Schoell, M., Haberreiter, M., Shapiro, A.V., Nyeki, S.: 2011a, A new approach to long-term reconstruction of the solar irradiance leads to large historical solar forcing. Astron. Astrophys. 529, 67.
Shapiro, A.V., Rozanov, E.V., Egorova, T.A., Shapiro, A.I., Peter, T., Schmutz, W.: 2011b, Sensitivity of the Earth’s middle atmosphere to short-term solar variability and its dependance on the choice of solar irradiance data set. J. Atmos. Solar-Terr. Phys. 73, 348.
Shine, R.A., Lites, B.W., Chipman, E.G.: 1978, Overlapping emission peaks in the solar C i multiplets at λ1560 and λ1657. Astrophys. J. 224, 247.
Snow, M., McClintock, W.E., Woods, T.N.: 2012, Solar spectral irradiance variability in the ultraviolet from SORCE and UARS SOLSTICE. Adv. Space Res. 46, 296.
Solanki, S.K., Unruh, Y.C.: 1998, A model of the wavelength dependence of solar irradiance variations. Astron. Astrophys. 329, 747.
Tapping, K., Boteler, D., Charbonneau, P., Crouch, A., Manson, A., Paquette, H.: 2007, Solar magnetic activity and total solar irradiance since the Maunder Minimum. Solar Phys. 246, 309.
Thuillier, G., Hersé, M., Simon, P.C., Labs, D., Mandel, H., Gillotay, D.: 1998, Observation of the solar spectral irradiance from 200 nm to 870 nm during the ATLAS 1 and ATLAS 2 missions by the SOLSPEC spectrometer. Metrologia 35, 689.
Thuillier, G., Hersé, M., Labs, D., Foujols, T., Peetermans, W., Gillotay, D., Simon, P.C., Mandel, H.: 2003, The solar spectral irradiance from 200 to 2400 nm as measured by the SOLSPEC spectrometer from the ATLAS and EURECA missions. Solar Phys. 214, 1.
Thuillier, G., Floyd, L., Woods, T.N., Cebula, R.P., Hilsenrath, E., Hersé, M., Labs, D.: 2004, Solar irradiance reference spectra for two solar active levels. Adv. Space Res. 34, 256.
Thuillier, G., DeLand, M., Shapiro, A., Schmutz, W., Bolsée, D., Melo, S.: 2012, The solar spectral irradiance as a function of the Mg ii index for atmosphere and climate modeling. Solar Phys. 277, 245.
Thuillier, G., Melo, S.M.L., Lean, J., Krivova, N.A., Bolduc, C., Fomichev, V.I., Charbonneau, P., Shapiro, A.I., Schmutz, W., Bolsée, D.: 2014, Analysis of different spectral irradiance reconstructions and their impact on solar heating rates calculations. Solar Phys. 289, 1115.
Vernazza, J.E., Avrett, E.H., Loeser, R.: 1981, Structure of the solar chromosphere. III. Models of the EUV brightness components of the quiet Sun. Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 45, 635.
Wang, Y.-M., Lean, J.L., Sheeley, N.R.: 2005, Modeling the Sun’s magnetic field and irradiance since 1713. Astrophys. J. 625, 522.
Acknowledgements
We thank Gerard Thuillier for kindly making available his full solar spectra from ATLAS-1 and ATLAS-3, as well as for numerous useful discussions. We also thank Ken Tapping for providing his updated sequence of S10.7. This work was supported by Canada’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Research Chair Program, the Programme de Recherche en Équipe of the Fonds de Recherche sur la Nature et Technologie (Québec, Grant 119078), as well as by the Space Science Enhancement Program of the Canadian Space Agency (Grant 9SCIGRA-21).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bolduc, C., Charbonneau, P., Barnabé, R. et al. A Reconstruction of Ultraviolet Spectral Irradiance During the Maunder Minimum. Sol Phys 289, 2891–2906 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-014-0503-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-014-0503-0