On the Energy Balance of Solar Active Regions

Main Investigator: A. Bonet

Co-Investigators: A. Jiménez, F. Gomez, M. Steinegger, & M. Vasquez


Objectives: Since April 1995 a long-term program is running at the Vacuum Newton Telescope (D=40 cm) at the Observatorio del Teide (Tenerife), that allows to measure the irradiance deficit produced by sunspots - in three different wavelengths - and the excess in facular regions and network -determined using three filters G-band (4308), Ca II K (3 Aband-width) and Ca II K (1.5 Abandwidth) - for all the active regions present on the solar disk. These measurements will be compared with the information coming from the radiometers (PMO6, DIARAD) and the SPM photometers, in order to understand the factors influencing the energy balance of solar active regions. For this reason we are specially interested in observing periods covering time intervals comparable with the lifetime of the active regions (approx. one month). This study could be extended to the lifetime of the complexes of activity (several months).