Analysis of non-thermal velocities in the solar corona

Abstract

We describe new ground-based spectroscopic observations made using a 40-cm aperture coronagraph over a whole range of radial distances (up to heights of 12' above the limb) and along four different heliocentric directions N, E, S and W. The analysis is limited to the study of the brightest forbidden emission line of Fe XIV at 530.3nm, in order to reach the best possible signal-to-noise ratio. To make the results statistically more significant, the extracted parameters are averaged over the whole length of the slit, and measurements are repeated fives times at each position; the corresponding dispersions in the results obtained along the slit are given. Central line profile intensities and full line widths (FWHM) are plotted and compared to measurements published by other authors closer to the limb. We found widths and turbulent (non-thermal) velocities of significantly higher values above the polar regions, especially when a coronal hole is present along the line of sight. We do not see a definitely decreasing behaviour of widths and turbulent velocities in equatorial directions for larger radial distances, as reported in the literature, although lower values are measured compared to the values in polar regions. The variation in the high corona is rather flat and a correlation diagram indicates that it is different for different regions and different radial distances. This seems to be the first analysis of the profiles of this coronal line, up to large heights above the limb for both equatorial and polar regions.