Ca II Emission from Late-type Stars

Abstract

Two recent observational surveys of the Ca II resonance lines (Zarro and Rodgers 1983; Linsky et al. 1979) illustrate the great diversity of line profile shapes found in the spectra of cool stars. This diversity reflects a corresponding wide range in the underlying chromospheric properties of the stars. There are, however, three well-marked systematic trends in the shapes of Ca II line profiles which presumably reflect systematic trends in chromospheric properties. One of these, the Wilson-Bappu effect (Wilson and Bappu 1957), describes the strong correlation betweeen the width of the emission core (see Figure 1) and the absolute visual magnitude of the star. Despite much work, it is still not clear whether this is due primarily to systematic changes of velocity fields (e.g. Hoyle and Wilson 1958) or optical depths (e.g. Jefferies and Thomas 1959) in stellar chromospheres.