Thomson Scattering above Solar Active Regions and an Ad Hoc Polarization Correction Method for the Emissive Corona

Thomson-scattered photospheric light is the dominant constituent of the lower solar corona’s spectral continuum viewed off-limb at optical wavelengths. Known as the K-corona, it is also linearly polarized. We investigate the possibility of using the a priori polarized characteristics of the K-corona...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2022-07, Vol.933 (1), p.53
Main Authors: Schad, Thomas A., Jaeggli, Sarah A., Dima, Gabriel I.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astrophysics
Broken symmetry
Corona
Crosstalk
Emission
Emission lines
Emission measurements
Fluid flow
Incident radiation
Induced polarization
Linear polarization
Magnetohydrodynamics
Photosphere
Polarization
Radiation
Solar activity
Solar activity regions
Solar corona
Solar E corona
Solar K corona
Solar magnetic fields
Spectropolarimetry
Stokes parameters
Tensors
Thomson scattering
Wavelengths
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Summary:Thomson-scattered photospheric light is the dominant constituent of the lower solar corona’s spectral continuum viewed off-limb at optical wavelengths. Known as the K-corona, it is also linearly polarized. We investigate the possibility of using the a priori polarized characteristics of the K-corona, together with polarized emission lines, to measure and correct instrument-induced polarized crosstalk. First we derive the Stokes parameters of the Thomson scattering of unpolarized light in an irreducible spherical tensor formalism. This allows forward synthesis of the Thomson-scattered signal for the more complex scenario that includes symmetry-breaking features in the incident radiation field, which could limit the accuracy of our proposed technique. For this, we make use of an advanced 3D radiative magnetohydrodynamic coronal model. Together with synthesized polarized signals in the Fe xiii 10746 Å emission line, we find that an ad hoc correction of telescope- and instrument-induced polarization crosstalk is possible under the assumption of a nondepolarizing optical system.
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.3847/1538-4357/ac713c