what do the downward peaks in the solar emission spectra mean? Are they the same as the emission spec lines?

These dark lines in the solar spectrum (which I assume is what you mean) are also known as Fraunhofer lines. They correspond to absorption of the particular frequency of light (or other e-m radiation) between us and the solar photosphere, which is, to a reasonable approximation, a black body at around 4500 K.

The lines are produced because particular elements absorb light at particular frequencies - a fact which in turn arises from the energies required to move electrons between energy states in these atoms. The energy absorbed by these atoms is then re-radiated - but not necessarily in the same direction as that in which it first arrived. Therefore, as we look towards the photosphere, we see a deficit in the light at these frequencies - the dark Fraunhofer lines. If, (for example) during a total solar eclipse, we look at the solar corona with a spectrograph, we see the light which is being reradiated after being sborbed - and therefore an emission spectrum corresponding to the absorption lines we normally see in the solar spectrum.

Is that what you meant?

Spectroscopy (play /spɛkˈtrɒskəpi/) is the study of the interaction between matter and radiated energy.[1][2] Historically, spectroscopy originated through the study of visible light dispersed according to its wavelength, e.g., by a prism. Later the concept was expanded greatly to comprise any interaction with radiative energy as a function of its wavelength or frequency. Spectroscopic data is often represented by a spectrum, a plot of the response of interest as a function of wavelength or frequency.