Chromospheric Polarization in the Photospheric Solar Oxygen Infrared Triplet

Del Pino Alemán, T.; Trujillo Bueno, J.
Bibliographical reference

The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 808, Issue 1, article id. L13, 6 pp. (2015).

Advertised on:
7
2015
Number of authors
2
IAC number of authors
2
Citations
5
Refereed citations
4
Description
We present multilevel radiative transfer modeling of the scattering polarization observed in the solar O i infrared triplet around 777 nm. We demonstrate that the scattering polarization pattern observed on the solar disk forms in the chromosphere, far above the photospheric region where the bulk of the emergent intensity profiles originate. We investigate the sensitivity of the polarization pattern to the thermal structure of the solar atmosphere and to the presence of weak magnetic fields (10‑2–100 G) through the Hanle effect, showing that the scattering polarization signals of the oxygen infrared triplet encode information on the magnetism of the solar chromosphere.
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Magnetism, Polarization and Radiative Transfer in Astrophysics
Magnetic fields pervade all astrophysical plasmas and govern most of the variability in the Universe at intermediate time scales. They are present in stars across the whole Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, in galaxies, and even perhaps in the intergalactic medium. Polarized light provides the most reliable source of information at our disposal for the
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