Dissemin is shutting down on January 1st, 2025

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Springer Verlag, Solar Physics, 2(292)

DOI: 10.1007/s11207-017-1057-8

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Evaluating (and Improving) Estimates of the Solar Radial Magnetic Field Component from Line-of-Sight Magnetograms

Journal article published in 2017 by K. D. Leka ORCID, G. Barnes, E. L. Wagner
This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Although for many solar physics problems the desirable or meaningful boundary is the radial component of the magnetic field $B_{\rm r}$, the most readily available measurement is the component of the magnetic field along the line-of-sight to the observer, $B_{\rm los}$. As this component is only equal to the radial component where the viewing angle is exactly zero, some approximation is required to estimate $B_{\rm r}$ at all other observed locations. In this study, a common approximation known as the "$μ$-correction", which assumes all photospheric field to be radial, is compared to a method which invokes computing a potential field that matches the observed $B_{\rm los}$, from which the potential field radial component, $B_{\rm r}^{\rm pot}$ is recovered. We demonstrate that in regions that are truly dominated by radially-oriented field at the resolution of the data employed, the $μ$-correction performs acceptably if not better than the potential-field approach. However, it is also shown that for any solar structure which includes horizontal fields, i.e. active regions, the potential-field method better recovers both the strength of the radial field and the location of magnetic neutral line. ; Comment: Accepted for publication in Solar Physics