TY - JOUR
T1 - Measurements of Faraday Rotation Through the Solar Corona During the 2009 Solar Minimum with the MESSENGER Spacecraft
AU - Jensen, Elizabeth A.
AU - Bisi, Mario Mark
AU - Breen, Andrew Robert
AU - Heiles, Carl
AU - Minter, Toney
AU - Vilas, Faith
PY - 2013/1/1
Y1 - 2013/1/1
N2 - Measurements of Faraday rotation through the solar corona were collected using the radio beacon aboard the MESSENGER spacecraft during the longest solar minimum in a century. As MESSENGER entered superior conjunction, the plane of polarization of its radio signal was observed to rotate as it traversed the circularly birefringent plasma of the Sun’s atmosphere. On time scales of less than three hours, these uncalibrated plane of polarization observations of Faraday rotation can be used to investigate the dynamic processes in the solar plasma, such as magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Here we describe the MESSENGER Faraday rotation experiment, the data processing conducted to obtain the plane of polarization, and the estimation of error.
AB - Measurements of Faraday rotation through the solar corona were collected using the radio beacon aboard the MESSENGER spacecraft during the longest solar minimum in a century. As MESSENGER entered superior conjunction, the plane of polarization of its radio signal was observed to rotate as it traversed the circularly birefringent plasma of the Sun’s atmosphere. On time scales of less than three hours, these uncalibrated plane of polarization observations of Faraday rotation can be used to investigate the dynamic processes in the solar plasma, such as magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Here we describe the MESSENGER Faraday rotation experiment, the data processing conducted to obtain the plane of polarization, and the estimation of error.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/2160/9235
U2 - 10.1007/s11207-012-0213-4
DO - 10.1007/s11207-012-0213-4
M3 - Article
SN - 0038-0938
VL - 285
SP - 83
EP - 95
JO - Solar Physics
JF - Solar Physics
IS - 1-2
ER -