Mapping solar magnetic fields from the photosphere to the base of the corona.

Routine ultraviolet imaging of the Sun's upper atmosphere shows the spectacular manifestation of solar activity; yet, we remain blind to its main driver, the magnetic field. Here, we report unprecedented spectropolarimetric observations of an active region plage and its surrounding enhanced network, showing circular polarization in ultraviolet (Mg ii & and Mn i) and visible (Fe i) lines. We infer the longitudinal magnetic field from the photosphere to the very upper chromosphere.

Vacuum ultraviolet spectropolarimeter design for precise polarization measurements.

Precise polarization measurements in the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) region provide a new means for inferring weak magnetic fields in the upper atmosphere of the Sun and stars. We propose a VUV spectropolarimeter design ideally suited for this purpose. This design is proposed and adopted for the NASA-JAXA chromospheric lyman-alpha spectropolarimeter (CLASP), which will record the linear polarization (Stokes Q and U) of the hydrogen Lyman-α line (121.

What can observations tell us about coronal heating?

The actual source of coronal heating is one of the longest standing unsolved mysteries in all of astrophysics, but it is only in recent years that observations have begun making significant contributions. Coronal loops, their structure and sub-structure, their temperature and density details, and their evolution with time, may hold the key to solving this mystery. Because spatial resolution of current observatories cannot resolve fundamental scale lengths, information about the heating of the corona must be inferred from indirect observations.

Energy release in the solar corona from spatially resolved magnetic braids.

It is now apparent that there are at least two heating mechanisms in the Sun's outer atmosphere, or corona. Wave heating may be the prevalent mechanism in quiet solar periods and may contribute to heating the corona to 1,500,000 K (refs 1-3). The active corona needs additional heating to reach 2,000,000-4,000,000 K; this heat has been theoretically proposed to come from the reconnection and unravelling of magnetic 'braids'.