Magnetic imaging of the outer solar atmosphere (MImOSA)

H. Peter,; E. Alsina Ballester ; V. Andretta,; F. Auchère,; L. Belluzzi,; A. Bemporad,; D. Berghmans,; E. Buchlin,; A. Calcines,; L.P. Chitta,; K. Dalmasse,; T. del Pino Alemán ; A. Feller,; C. Froment,; R. Harrison,; M. Janvier,; S. Matthews,; S. Parenti,; D. Przybylski,; S.K. Solanki,; J. Štěpán,; L. Teriaca; J. Trujillo Bueno
Bibliographical reference

Experimental Astronomy

Advertised on:
12
2022
Number of authors
23
IAC number of authors
3
Citations
2
Refereed citations
2
Description
The magnetic activity of the Sun directly impacts the Earth and human life. Likewise, other stars will have an impact on the habitability of planets orbiting these host stars. The lack of information on the magnetic field in the higher atmospheric layers hampers our progress in understanding solar magnetic activity. Overcoming this limitation would allow us to address four paramount long-standing questions: (1) How does the magnetic field couple the different layers of the atmosphere, and how does it transport energy? (2) How does the magnetic field structure, drive and interact with the plasma in the chromosphere and upper atmosphere? (3) How does the magnetic field destabilise the outer solar atmosphere and thus affect the interplanetary environment? (4) How do magnetic processes accelerate particles to high energies? New ground-breaking observations are needed to address these science questions. We suggest a suite of three instruments that far exceed current capabilities in terms of spatial resolution, light-gathering power, and polarimetric performance: (a) A large-aperture UV-to-IR telescope of the 1-3 m class aimed mainly to measure the magnetic field in the chromosphere by combining high spatial resolution and high sensitivity. (b) An extreme-UV-to-IR coronagraph that is designed to measure the large-scale magnetic field in the corona with an aperture of about 40 cm. (c) An extreme-UV imaging polarimeter based on a 30 cm telescope that combines high throughput in the extreme UV with polarimetry to connect the magnetic measurements of the other two instruments. This mission to measure the magnetic field will unlock the driver of the dynamics in the outer solar atmosphere and thereby greatly advance our understanding of the Sun and the heliosphere.
Related projects
Project Image
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
Tanausú del
Pino Alemán