DR. HELEN MASON

A total eclipse of the Sun is a rare but spectacular event. In 2009 an eclipse went right across India. During an eclipse, several visible coronal lines can be observed. These arise from highly ionised iron ions, with formation temperatures around one million degrees. Moving towards the UV and X-rays, many spectral lines from iron ions fall into the wavelength bands of current solar space observatories: SoHO, Hinode, SDO and IRIS. New atomic data have been calculated for these iron ions and incorporated into the CHIANTI atomic database. Spectroscopic diagnostics have been used to determine plasma properties (Emission Measure, density, flows) for solar phenomena, such as active regions and flares.