E-corona

E-corona

The part of the solar corona that consists of relatively slow-moving ions and exhibits an emission spectrum superimposed on the continuum of the K-corona. The emission lines show that the E-corona is very highly ionized, some ions having lost up to 15 electrons. At visible wavelengths, only forbidden lines are present, the most prominent of which are the ‘red’ line at 637.4 nm (caused by the presence of Fe X), the ‘green’ line at 530.3 nm (caused by Fe XIV), and the ‘yellow’ line at 569.4 nm (caused by Ca XV).