ALMA Detection of Dark Chromospheric Holes in the Quiet Sun

Abstract

We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of a quiet-Sun region at a wavelength of 3 mm, obtained during the first solar ALMA cycle on 2017 April 27, and compare them with available chromospheric observations in the UV and visible as well as with photospheric magnetograms. ALMA images clearly reveal the presence of distinct particularly dark/cool areas in the millimeter maps with temperatures as low as 60% of the normal quiet Sun at 3 mm, which are not seen in the other data. We speculate that ALMA is sensing cool chromospheric gas, whose presence had earlier been inferred from infrared CO spectra.