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Space weather events such as solar flares can be harmful for life and infrastructure on earth or in near-earth orbit. In this paper we employ extreme value theory (EVT) to model extreme solar flare events; EVT offers the appropriate tools for the study and estimation of probabilities for extrapolation to ranges outside of those that have already been observed. In the past such phenomena have been modelled as following a power law which may gives poor estimates of such events due to overestimation. The data used in the study were X-ray fluxes from NOAA/GOES and the expected return levels for Carrington or Halloween like events were calculated with the outcome that the existing data predict similar events happening in 110 and 38 years respectively., Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures

Observations of the emission at radio, millimeter, sub-millimeter, and infrared wavelengths in the center of the solar disk validate the auto-consistence of semi-empirical models of the chromosphere. Theoretically, these models must reproduce the emission at the solar limb. In this work, we tested both the VALC and the C7 semi-empirical models by computing their emission spectrum in the frequency range from 2 GHz to 10 THz, at solar limb altitudes. We calculate the Sun's theoretical radii as well as their limb brightening. Non-Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (NLTE) was computed for hydrogen, electron density, and H-. In order to solve the radiative transfer equation a 3D geometry was employed to determine the ray paths and Bremsstrahlung, H-, and inverse Bremsstrahlung opacity sources were integrated in the optical depth. We compared the computed solar radii with high resolution observations at the limb obtained by Clark (1994). We found that there are differences between observed and computed solar radii of 12000 km at 20 GHz, 5000 km at 100 GHz, and 1000 km at 3 THz for both semi-empirical models. A difference of 8000 km in the solar radii was found comparing our results against heights obtained from H{\alpha} observations of spicules-off at the solar limb. We conclude that the solar radii can not be reproduced by VALC and C7 semi-empirical models at radio - infrared wavelengths. Therefore, the structures in the high chromosphere provides a better measurement of the solar radii and their limb brightening as shown in previous investigations., Comment: Accepted by The Astrophysical Journal

Semi-empirical models of the solar Chromosphere show in their emission spectrum, tomography property at millimeter, sub-millimeter, and infrared wavelengths for the center of the solar disk. In this work, we studied this property in the solar limb using our numerical code PakalMPI, focusing in the region where the solar atmosphere becomes optically thick. Individual contribution of Bremsstrahlung and H- opacities was take into account in the radiative transfer process. We found that the tomography property remains in all the spectrum region under study at limb altitudes. For frequencies be- tween 2 GHz and 5 THz the contribution of Bremsstrahlung is the dominant process above the solar limb., Comment: Accepted in Advances in Space Research

The semi-empirical models of the solar chromosphere are useful in the study of the solar radio emission at millimeter - infrared wavelengths. However, current models do not reproduce the observations of the quiet sun. In this work we present a theoretical study of the radiative transfer equation for four semi- empirical models at these wavelengths. We found that the Chromospheric Solar Milimeter-wave Cavity (CSMC), a region where the atmosphere becomes locally optically thin at millimeter wavelengths, is present in the semi-empirical models under study. We conclude that the CSMC is a general property of the solar chromosphere where the semi-empirical models shows temperature minimum., Comment: Accepted in Geofisica Internacional

Solar observations from millimeter to ultraviolet wavelengths show that there is a temperature minimum between photosphere and chromosphere. Analysis based on semi-empirical models locate this point at about 500 km over the photosphere. The consistency of these models has been tested by means of millimeter to infrared observations. In the present work, we show that variations of the theoretical radial temperature profile near the temperature minimum impacts the brightness temperature at centimeter, submillimeter, and infrared wavelengths, but the millimeter wavelength emission remains unchanged. We found a region between 500 and 1000 km over the photosphere that remains hidden to observations at the frequencies under study in this work., Comment: Accepted in Solar Physics

Through a detailed theoretical analysis of the local emission at millimeter,sub-millimeter and infrared wavelength regimes (from \~ 10 GHz up to \~ 10 THz), we found that, associated with the temperature minimum, there is an optically thin cavity surrounded by two regions of high local emissivity. We call this structure the Chromospheric Solar Millimeter Cavity (CSMC). In order to search for traces of this cavity in the available radio observations on the solar limb, we have developed a robust method to associate the radiation at different heights with the observed brightness temperatures. We foresee that this approach will allow us to determine the relationship between the CSMC and the solar limb brightening., Comment: conference: New Quests in Stellar Astrophysics III

We present an analysis of the correlation between the mid-UV Mg II h and k emission lines and measured rotational periods of G-type stars. Based on IUE and HST high resolution spectra of a sample of 36 stars, we derive an exponential function that best represents the correlation. We found that the variation of the Mg II h + k fluxes is about a factor of 2.5 larger than that of Ca II H+K, indicating that the UV features are more sensitive to the decline of rotational period. The comparison of UV-predicted rotational periods with those derived from empirical Prot - Ca II H+K flux calibrations are consistent, with some scatter at large periods, where the emission are less intense. We present newly derived rotational periods for 15 G-type stars., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication in PASP (corrected references)

We use a numerical code called PAKALMPI to compute synthetic spectra of the solar emission in quiet conditions at millimeter, sub-millimeter and infrared wavelengths. PAKALMPI solves the radiative transfer equation, with Non Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (NLTE), in a three dimensional geometry using a multiprocessor environment. The code is able to use three opacity functions: classical bremsstrahlung, H-and inverse bremsstrahlung. In this work we have computed and compared two synthetic spectra, one in the common way: using bremsstrahlung opacity function and considering a fully ionized atmosphere; and a new one considering bremsstrahlung, inverse bremsstrahlung and H- opacity functions in NLTE. We analyzed in detail the local behavior of the low atmospheric emission at 17, 212, and 405 GHz (frequencies used by the Nobeyama Radio Heliograph and the Solar Submillimeter Telescope). We found that the H- is the major emission mechanism at low altitudes (below 500 km) and that at higher altitudes the classical bremsstrahlung becomes the major mechanism of emission. However the brightness temperature remains unalterable. Finally, we found that the inverse bremsstrahlung process is not important for the radio emission at these heights.

We present a new numerical model called "Pakal" intended to solve the radiative transfer equation in a three-dimensional (3D) geometry, using the approximation for a locally plane-parallel atmosphere. Pakal uses pre-calculated radial profiles of density and temperature (based on hydrostatic, hydrodynamic, or MHD models) to compute the emission from 3D source structures with high spatial resolution. Then, Pakal solves the radiative transfer equation in a set of (3D) ray paths, going from the source to the observer. Pakal uses a new algorithm to compute the radiative transfer equation by using an intelligent system consisting of three structures: a cellular automaton; an expert system; and a program coordinator. The code outputs can be either two-dimensional maps or one-dimensional profiles, which reproduce the observations with high accuracy, giving detailed physical information about the environment where the radiation was generated and/or transmitted. We present the model applied to a 3D solar radial geometry, assuming a locally plane-parallel atmosphere, and thermal free-free radio emission from hydrogen-helium gas in thermodynamic equilibrium. We also present the convergence test of the code. We computed the synthetic spectrum of the centimetric-millimetric solar emission and found better agreement with observations (up to $10^4$ K at 20 GHz) than previous models reported in the literature. The stability and convergence test show the high accuracy of the code. Finally, Pakal can improve the integration time by up to an order of magnitude compared against linear integration codes., Comment: 9 figures