Polarization Calibration of the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)

As part of the overall ground-based calibration of the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) instrument an extensive set of polarimetric calibrations were performed. This paper describes the polarimetric design of the instrument, the test setup, the polarimetric model, the tests performed, and some...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Solar physics 2012-01, Vol.275 (1-2), p.327-355
Main Authors: Schou, J., Borrero, J. M., Norton, A. A., Tomczyk, S., Elmore, D., Card, G. L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astrophysics and Astroparticles
Atmospheric Sciences
Calibration
Magnetic fields
Physics
Physics and Astronomy
Scientific apparatus & instruments
Solar physics
Space Exploration and Astronautics
Space Sciences (including Extraterrestrial Physics
The Solar Dynamics Observatory
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:As part of the overall ground-based calibration of the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) instrument an extensive set of polarimetric calibrations were performed. This paper describes the polarimetric design of the instrument, the test setup, the polarimetric model, the tests performed, and some results. It is demonstrated that HMI achieves an accuracy of 1% or better on the crosstalks between Q , U , and V and that our model can reproduce the intensities in our calibration sequences to about 0.4%. The amount of depolarization is negligible when the instrument is operated as intended which, combined with the flexibility of the polarimeter design, means that the polarimetric efficiency is excellent.
ISSN:0038-0938
1573-093X
DOI:10.1007/s11207-010-9639-8