On the widths and ratios of Mg 609.79 and 624.94 Å lines in polar off-limb regions

Using measurements of Mg  609.78 and 624.94 Å lines from the Coronal Diagnostic Spectrometer (CDS) on board SOHO, we seek to examine the variation of line width and line ratio in regions far off-limb at the Northern pole of the Sun. It is found that above ≈1150′′ the ratio of the two coronal Mg  resonance lines reduces to values that might be expected for a more radiatively dominant excitation mode. A comparison of the line widths with these ratios indicates that the line widths start to show a decrease in their values at the location where the dominant excitation changes from being collisionally to radiatively dominant, that is, at ≈1150′′. We suggest that the decrease in the line widths above ≈1150′′ is likely to be due to a reduction in the non-thermal component of the line widths caused by a damping of upwardly propagating Alfvén waves.