NOMINAL VALUES FOR SELECTED SOLAR AND PLANETARY QUANTITIES: IAU 2015 RESOLUTION B3
By A. Prša, P. Harmanec, G. Torres, Eric Mamajek, Martin Asplund, N. Capitaine, J. Christensen-Dalsgaard, É. Depagne, M. Haberreiter, S. Hekker and 12 more. 2016
270 citations recorded by the source corpus.
In this brief communication we provide the rationale for and the outcome of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) resolution vote at the XXIXth General Assembly in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 2015, on recommended nominal conversion constants for selected solar and planetary properties. The problem addressed by the resolution is a lack of established conversion constants between solar and planetary values and SI units: a missing standard has caused a proliferation of solar values (e.g., solar radius, solar irradiance, solar luminosity, solar effective temperature, and solar mass parameter) in the literature, with cited solar values typically based on best estimates at the time of paper writing. As precision of observations increases, a set of consistent values becomes increasingly important. To address this, an IAU Working Group on Nominal Units for Stellar and Planetary Astronomy formed in 2011, uniting experts from the solar, stellar, planetary, exoplanetary, and fundamental astronomy, as well as from general standards fields to converge on optimal values for nominal conversion constants. The effort resulted in the IAU 2015 Resolution B3, passed at the IAU General Assembly by a large majority. The resolution recommends the use of nominal solar and planetary values, which are by definition exact and are expressed in SI units. These nominal values should be understood as conversion factors only, not as the true solar/planetary properties or current best estimates. Authors and journal editors are urged to join in using the standard values set forth by this resolution in future work and publications to help minimize further confusion.
Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Atmospheric Science
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b6318ded12040c1cac631ec4a9221ebfcf3794cb
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In Astronomy and Astrophysics
- I. Usoskin
- Paul Charbonneau
- M. Haberreiter
- J. Beer
- Adam A. Scaife
- U. Langematz
- T. D. D. Wit
- C. Willmer
In Atmospheric Science
- Paul Charbonneau
- I. Usoskin
- Adam A. Scaife
- U. Langematz
- J. Beer
- C. Willmer
- A. Seppälä
- Craig J. Rodger
Citations in the corpus
- The Absolute Magnitude of the Sun in Several Filters (2018, methodology): “To rationalize the use of solar constants, the IAU in 2015 adopted a nominal value for the Sun’s luminosity Lodot = 3.828×10 8 W (Prša et al. 2016), which corresponds to an average 6 TSI of 1361 W m−2 at 1 AU and an absolute bolometric magnitude of MBol=4.74.”
- PHYSICS OF ECLIPSING BINARIES. II. TOWARD THE INCREASED MODEL FIDELITY (2016, background): “This is partly because of embedded approximations, partly because of the inconsistent use of physical units and constants (see the IAU 2015 resolution B3; Prša et al. 2016) and partly because of the missing and/or inadequate physics built into these models.”
- Solar Forcing for CMIP6 (v3.1) (2016, background): “Since CMIP5, the nominal TSI has been reduced to 1361.0± 0.5 W m−2 (see Prša et al., 2016, and also Kopp and Lean, 2011).”