Multidimensional radiative transfer in stratified atmospheres

Kneer, F.; Trujillo-Bueno, J.
Bibliographical reference

Astronomy and Astrophysics (ISSN 0004-6361), vol. 183, no. 1, Sept. 1987, p. 91-97.

Advertised on:
9
1987
Number of authors
2
IAC number of authors
0
Citations
14
Refereed citations
12
Description
Energy transport by radiation is an important contribution to the energy budget in stellar atmospheric structures. In this paper, radiative relaxation of small-scale structures is investigated. The authors show in a linear analysis: (1) Already at structural lengths of 10 opacity scale heights, horizontal photon exchange is important for the energy budget. (2) In atmospheric layers near continuum optical depth τc = 1 and below, the continuum absorption and emission processes dominate the radiative relaxation. (3) Weak spectral lines or lines with σlɛ ≤ 1 have little influence on the energy exchange. (4) At large heights, transport in few spectral lines with σlɛ very large 1 can compete with continuum processes.