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

Ryohko Ishikawa; Javier Trujillo Bueno; Tanausú Del Pino Alemán; Takenori J Okamoto; David E McKenzie; Frédéric Auchère; Ryouhei Kano; Donguk Song; Masaki Yoshida; Laurel A Rachmeler; Ken Kobayashi; Hirohisa Hara; Masahito Kubo; Noriyuki Narukage; Taro Sakao; Toshifumi Shimizu; Yoshinori Suematsu; Christian Bethge; Bart De Pontieu; Alberto Sainz Dalda; Genevieve D Vigil; Amy Winebarger; Ernest Alsina Ballester; Luca Belluzzi; Jiří Štěpán; Andrés Asensio Ramos; Mats Carlsson; Jorrit Leenaarts

doi:10.1126/sciadv.abe8406

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

Sci Adv. 2021 Feb 19;7(8):eabe8406. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abe8406. Print 2021 Feb.

Authors

Ryohko Ishikawa¹, Javier Trujillo Bueno^{2

3

4}, Tanausú Del Pino Alemán^{2

3}, Takenori J Okamoto⁵, David E McKenzie⁶, Frédéric Auchère⁷, Ryouhei Kano⁵, Donguk Song⁵, Masaki Yoshida^{5

8}, Laurel A Rachmeler⁹, Ken Kobayashi⁶, Hirohisa Hara⁵, Masahito Kubo⁵, Noriyuki Narukage⁵, Taro Sakao¹⁰, Toshifumi Shimizu¹⁰, Yoshinori Suematsu⁵, Christian Bethge¹¹, Bart De Pontieu^{12

13

14}, Alberto Sainz Dalda^{12

15

16}, Genevieve D Vigil^{6

17}, Amy Winebarger⁶, Ernest Alsina Ballester¹⁸, Luca Belluzzi^{18

19}, Jiří Štěpán²⁰, Andrés Asensio Ramos^{2

3}, Mats Carlsson^{13

14}, Jorrit Leenaarts²¹

Affiliations

¹ National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan. ryoko.ishikawa@nao.ac.jp.
² Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain.
³ Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna, E-38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain.
⁴ Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spain.
⁵ National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan.
⁶ NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 35812, USA.
⁷ Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France.
⁸ Department of Astronomical Science, School of Physical Sciences, SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies), Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan.
⁹ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Centers for Environmental Information, Boulder, CO 80305, USA.
¹⁰ Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-5210, Japan.
¹¹ Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80305, USA.
¹² Lockheed Martin Solar & Astrophysics Laboratory, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA.
¹³ Rosseland Centre for Solar Physics, University of Oslo, NO-0315 Oslo, Norway.
¹⁴ Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Oslo, NO-0315 Oslo, Norway.
¹⁵ Bay Area Environmental Research Institute, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA.
¹⁶ Stanford University, HEPL, Stanford, CA 94305-4085, USA.
¹⁷ Universities Space Research Association, Huntsville, AL 35805, USA.
¹⁸ Istituto Ricerche Solari Locarno, CH-6605 Locarno Monti, Switzerland.
¹⁹ Leibniz-Institut für Sonnenphysik (KIS), Schöneckstr. 6, D-79104, Freiburg, Germany.
²⁰ Astronomical Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 25165 Ondrejov, Czech Republic.
²¹ Institute for Solar Physics, Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University, AlbaNova University Centre, SE-106 91, Stockholm, Sweden.

Abstract

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 h & k and Mn i) and visible (Fe i) lines. We infer the longitudinal magnetic field from the photosphere to the very upper chromosphere. At the top of the plage chromosphere, the field strengths reach more than 300 G, strongly correlated with the Mg ii k line core intensity and the electron pressure. This unique mapping shows how the magnetic field couples the different atmospheric layers and reveals the magnetic origin of the heating in the plage chromosphere.

Copyright © 2021 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC).