SOLAR RADIUS VARIATIONS: AN INQUISITIVE WAVELENGTH DEPENDENCE

Recent solar radius determinations from space observations of Mercury and Venus transits have been made by different teams in 2003, 2006, 2012, and 2014. Seemingly the results are not consistent: the authors interpreted the discrepancies as caused by the different methods of analysis. However, looking at the wavelength dependence and adding other available observations from X-EUV up to radio, a typical wavelength dependence can be found, reflecting the different heights at which the lines are formed. Measurements obtained during different periods of time would, in principle, allow us to detect a signature of radius temporal dependence. However, the available data are not sufficiently numerous to detect a significant dependence, at least at the level of the uncertainty at which the observations were made. Lastly, no unique theoretical model is available today to reproduce the strong wavelength dependence of the solar radius, which shows an unexpected minimum at around (6.6 �1.9) μm, after a parabolic fit.