Astrophysics (Index)About

spectral signature

(signature)
(spectral characteristics indicating the emitting material and conditions)

A spectral signature is a characteristic or set of characteristics of an emission's spectral energy distribution (SED) (i.e., a spectral feature) that reveal something specific about the material or conditions that produced the electromagnetic radiation (EMR). Typical would be characteristics suggesting the material and temperature such as particular spectral lines superimposed on a particular black-body spectrum. A specific spectral index over a specific band might be a signature for some type of emission, e.g., synchrotron radiation. There are spectral signatures associated with certain types of stars (spectral classes), as well as signatures for additional characteristics, such as metallicity. Similar can be said of galaxies, quasars, clouds, planets, etc. The term spectral signature is also used in planetary science (including Earth science), e.g., for sensing characteristics of a body's surface from an orbiting probe (satellite).


(spectrography,EMR)
Further reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectral_signature
https://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_EN/SEMPNQ3Z2OF_0.html

Referenced by pages:
advection dominated accretion flow (ADAF)
AGN corona
Compton reflection
damped Lyman alpha absorber (DLA)
damping profile
flux-weighted gravity-luminosity relationship (FGLR)
hydrology
Penrose Compton scattering (PCS)
photodissociation region (PDR)
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)
r-process
radioactivity
silicon monoxide (SiO)
spectral energy distribution (SED)
spectral feature
spectral temperature
stellar distance determination
stellar radius determination
supernova light curve (SN light curve)
surface gravity (g)
surface temperature
synchrotron self-Compton (SSC)
temperature
titanium (Ti)
wind-momentum luminosity relationship (WLR)
Wolf-Rayet galaxy
WR 140

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