Researchers produce first global 3D estimates of the Sun's magnetic field
Researchers have produced the first global 3D estimates of the Sun's magnetic field, including beyond its visible edge.
A team of researchers has produced the first global, three-dimensional estimates of the Sun's magnetic field, including the area beyond the Sun's visible edge. The method is published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Scientists have observed the structure of the Sun's upper atmosphere, the corona, for decades but had not been able to measure the full magnetic field that shapes it. The team applied a new method to existing observations from the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory, which is operated by the US National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR).
The study combined an earlier effort that produced the first 2D global maps of the coronal magnetic field, using the Upgraded Coronal Multi-channel Polarimeter (UCoMP), with a technique known as the IQUD inversion. The team used data from the original Coronal Multi-channel Polarimeter on 14 October 2016 and from UCoMP on 1 June 2022. It pulled out information encoded in waves travelling through the corona to reconstruct the 3D field.
"We produced the first determinations of the coronal magnetic field's strength and 3D direction across the regions where MLSO observations are available," said Daniela Lacatus, an NSF NCAR researcher and co-author. The study involved researchers from NSF NCAR, the National Solar Observatory and Southwest Research Institute.
Sourcephys.org