Analysis of Atomic Spectra with applications to solar measurements

Atomic and molecular spectroscopy allows us to reveal the constituents of matter. Using PASCO{\textregistered} equipment we analyze the emission lines of several components of air such as oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, water, and helium. The pressure broadening on the emission lines allows us to enlarge them to a few nm in width and thus, to well resolve the lines. The characterization of the emission lines is applied to unknown compound spectra to identify the atomic constituents present. Also, the information can be further used to identify absorption lines embedded in the emission spectra of a known blackbody source of radiation: indeed the profile of the emission lines and their location should coincide with the absorption lines. The dominant absorption lines are from the ground atomic state. We attempt to apply this knowledge to de-convolute the absorption lines from the blackbody spectrum of the Sun modified by the absorption lines of Hydrogen and Helium atoms located in the Sun's corona, and of Nitrogen, Oxygen, Carbon and other atoms from the Earth's atmosphere.