Title and Abstract
Title: Diagnostics New and Old for a Dynamic Chromosphere
Abstract: The chromosphere plays a key role in the transfer of energy from the lower atmosphere upwards into the corona and solar wind. In these regions the plasma and magnetic pressure come into balance, allowing for the conversion of wave modes or the acceleration of material through magnetic reconnection. Such small-scale dynamics may be a source of some of the phenomena, such as switchbacks, observed by the Parker Solar Probe (PSP). High-resolution observations and novel diagnostics, paired with increasingly sophisticated numerical simulations, are necessary to better understand this complex, dynamic region of the solar atmosphere.
In this talk I will first discuss the study of spectral profiles observed with imaging spectrographs based on Fabry-Perot interferometers, combined with new diagnostics provided by the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA). The millimeter continuum, observed at sufficient resolution, is thought to be a robust diagnostic of the local electron temperature and useful in probing dynamical behavior. Based on information learned from this analysis, I will then examine what we can learn from filtergraph and spectrally resolved observations of the chromosphere in H-alpha. I will then discuss how these chromospheric diagnostics might be employed in the near future with the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST).