Continuum Intensity and [O I] Spectral Line Profiles in Solar 3D Photospheric Models: The Effect of Magnetic Fields

The importance of magnetic fields in three-dimensional (3D) magnetoconvection models of the Sun?s photosphere is investigated in terms of their influence on the continuum intensity at different viewing inclination angles?and on the intensity profile of two [O i] spectral lines. We use the RH numerical radiative transfer code to perform a posteriori spectral synthesis on the same time?series of magnetoconvection models used in our publications on the effect of magnetic fields on abundance determination. We obtain a good match of the synthetic disk-center continuum intensity to the absolute continuum values from the Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) observational spectrum; the match of the center-to-limb variation synthetic data to observations is also good, thanks, in part, to the 3D radiation transfer capabilities of the RH code. The different levels of magnetic flux in the numerical time?series do not modify the quality of the match. Concerning the targeted [O i] spectral lines, we find, instead, that magnetic fields lead to nonnegligible changes in the synthetic spectrum, with larger average magnetic flux causing both of the lines to become noticeably weaker. The photospheric oxygen abundance that one would derive if instead using nonmagnetic numerical models would thus be lower by a few to several centidex. The inclusion of magnetic fields is confirmed to be important for improving the current modeling of the Sun, here in particular in terms of spectral line formation and of deriving consistent chemical abundances. These results may shed further light on the still controversial issue regarding the precise value of the solar oxygen abundance.