The atmospheric structure and fundamental parameters of the red supergiants AH Sco, UY Sct and KW Sgr

2013

We present the atmospheric structure and the fundamental properties of the red supergiants (RSGs) AH Sco, UY Sct, and KW Sgr based on VLTI/AMBER observations. We carried out spectro-interferometric observations of AH Sco, UY Sct, and KW Sgr in the near-infrared K band with the VLTI/AMBER instrument, and compared the data to a new grid of hydrostatic PHOENIX model atmospheres. In our visibility data, we observe molecular layers of water and CO in extended atmospheres. For a uniform disk modeling, we observe size increases at the water band of 10% to 25% and at the CO bandheads of 20%-35% with respect to the near continuum bandpass. The PHOENIX atmosphere models predict the spectra and the co…