Bibcode
Trujillo Bueno, J.; Štěpán, J.; Belluzzi, L.; Asensio Ramos, A.; Manso Sainz, R.; del Pino Alemán, T.; Casini, R.; Ishikawa, R.; Kano, R.; Winebarger, A.; Auchère, F.; Narukage, N.; Kobayashi, K.; Bando, T.; Katsukawa, Y.; Kubo, M.; Ishikawa, S.; Giono, G.; Hara, H.; Suematsu, Y.; Shimizu, T.; Sakao, T.; Tsuneta, S.; Ichimoto, K.; Cirtain, J.; Champey, P.; De Pontieu, B.; Carlsson, M.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 866, Issue 1, article id. L15, 7 pp. (2018).
Advertised on:
10
2018
Citations
24
Refereed citations
23
Description
The Chromospheric Lyman-Alpha Spectro-Polarimeter (CLASP) is a
suborbital rocket experiment that on 2015 September 3 measured the
linear polarization produced by scattering processes in the hydrogen
Lyα line of the solar disk radiation. The line-center photons of
this spectral line radiation mostly stem from the chromosphere-corona
transition region (TR). These unprecedented spectropolarimetric
observations revealed an interesting surprise, namely that there is
practically no center-to-limb variation (CLV) in the Q/I line-center
signals. Using an analytical model, we first show that the geometric
complexity of the corrugated surface that delineates the TR has a
crucial impact on the CLV of the Q/I and U/I line-center signals.
Second, we introduce a statistical description of the solar atmosphere
based on a 3D model derived from a state-of-the-art radiation
magnetohydrodynamic simulation. Each realization of the statistical
ensemble is a 3D model characterized by a given degree of magnetization
and corrugation of the TR, and for each such realization we solve the
full 3D radiative transfer problem taking into account the impact of the
CLASP instrument degradation on the calculated polarization signals.
Finally, we apply the statistical inference method presented in a
previous paper to show that the TR of the 3D model that produces the
best agreement with the CLASP observations has a relatively weak
magnetic field and a relatively high degree of corrugation. We emphasize
that a suitable way to validate or refute numerical models of the upper
solar chromosphere is by confronting calculations and observations of
the scattering polarization in ultraviolet lines sensitive to the Hanle
effect.
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