Polarization Diagnostics Applied to Coronal Mass Ejections and the Background Solar Wind

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Gibson, Sarah E, DeForest, Craig E., de Koning, Curt A., Cranmer, Steven R., Fan, Yuhong, Morgan, Huw, Provornikova, Elena, Malanushenko, Anna, Webb, David
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Gibson, Sarah E
DeForest, Craig E.
de Koning, Curt A.
Cranmer, Steven R.
Fan, Yuhong
Morgan, Huw
Provornikova, Elena
Malanushenko, Anna
Webb, David
author_facet Gibson, Sarah E
DeForest, Craig E.
de Koning, Curt A.
Cranmer, Steven R.
Fan, Yuhong
Morgan, Huw
Provornikova, Elena
Malanushenko, Anna
Webb, David
contents The ratio of radially to tangentially polarized Thomson-scattered white light provides a powerful tool for locating the 3D position of compact structures in the solar corona and inner heliosphere, and the Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) has been designed to take full advantage of this diagnostic capability. Interestingly, this same observable that establishes the position of transient blob-like structures becomes a local measure of the slope of the global falloff of density in the background solar wind. It is thus important to characterize the extent along the line of sight of structures being studied, in order to determine whether they are sufficiently compact for 3D positioning. In this paper, we build from analyses of individual lines of sight to three-dimensional models of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), allowing us to consider how accurately polarization properties of the transient and quiescent solar wind are diagnosed. In this way, we demonstrate the challenges and opportunities presented by PUNCH polarization data for various quantitative diagnostics.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_00714
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Polarization Diagnostics Applied to Coronal Mass Ejections and the Background Solar Wind
Gibson, Sarah E
DeForest, Craig E.
de Koning, Curt A.
Cranmer, Steven R.
Fan, Yuhong
Morgan, Huw
Provornikova, Elena
Malanushenko, Anna
Webb, David
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
The ratio of radially to tangentially polarized Thomson-scattered white light provides a powerful tool for locating the 3D position of compact structures in the solar corona and inner heliosphere, and the Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) has been designed to take full advantage of this diagnostic capability. Interestingly, this same observable that establishes the position of transient blob-like structures becomes a local measure of the slope of the global falloff of density in the background solar wind. It is thus important to characterize the extent along the line of sight of structures being studied, in order to determine whether they are sufficiently compact for 3D positioning. In this paper, we build from analyses of individual lines of sight to three-dimensional models of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), allowing us to consider how accurately polarization properties of the transient and quiescent solar wind are diagnosed. In this way, we demonstrate the challenges and opportunities presented by PUNCH polarization data for various quantitative diagnostics.
title Polarization Diagnostics Applied to Coronal Mass Ejections and the Background Solar Wind
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.00714