2008/01/15 by N. E. Raouafi, N. -E. Raouafi, Raouafi, N. -E. +4
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics #Magnetic confinement fusion research #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0801.2202
6 pages, 5 figures, Solar Polarization Workshop 5
arxiv created 2008/01/15 · openalex publication_date 2008/01/15 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Our understanding of coronal phenomena, such as coronal plasma thermodynamics, faces a major handicap caused by missing coronal magnetic field measurements. Several lines in the UV wavelength range present suitable sensitivity to determine the coronal magnetic field via the Hanle effect. The latter is a largely unexplored diagnostic of coronal magnetic fields with a very high potential. Here we study the magnitude of the Hanle-effect signal to be expected outside the solar limb due to the Hanle effect in polarized radiation from the H \sci Lyα and β lines, which are among the brightest lines in the off-limb coronal FUV spectrum. For this purpose we use a magnetic field structure obtained by extrapolating the magnetic field starting from photospheric magnetograms. The diagnostic potential of these lines for determining the coronal magnetic field, as well as their limitations are studied. We show that these lines, in particular H \sci Lyβ, are useful for such measurements.