A Copernicus survey of MG II emission in late-type stars

Abstract

The behavior of Mg II emission in late-type stars is examined using scan data obtained with the Copernicus satellite. The luminosity in the Mg II k emission line was found to be closely related to stellar absolute magnitude, leading to the suggestion that such correlation may be very useful for future UV observations. The stellar surface flux in the k line was observed to be roughly constant or to decrease slowly with later spectral type, a finding which is then used to show that the pressure at the top of the chromosphere decreases with later spectral type, in agreement with the conclusions by McClintock et al. (1975). An asymmetry in the Mg II k line was noticed to be present in the available data for the stars later than K2-K5.