Bibcode
Derouich, M.; Bommier, V.; Malherbe, J. M.; Landi Degl'Innocenti, E.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 457, Issue 3, October III 2006, pp.1047-1052
Advertised on:
10
2006
Journal
Citations
19
Refereed citations
15
Description
Aims.This paper is devoted to an interpretation of Quiet-Sun,
spatially-resolved spectropolarimetric observations of the Hanle effect
in terms of turbulent weak magnetic field determination. Methods:
. Observations: the slit was positioned perpendicular to the limb, and
the spatial resolution along the slit was 1 arcsec, leading to a depth
probing along 132 different limb distances. The new polarimeter of the
Pic-du-Midi Turret Dome was used on May 14, 2004 to observe a quiet
region at the East limb equator in the resonance line of neutral
Strontium at 4607 Å. Results: . For each limb distance, we
properly adjusted the theoretical intensity profile obtained by applying
a zero-field model to the observed one. Micro- and macroturbulent
velocities were thus derived (average values v{micro}=1.77 km
s-1 and v{macro}=1.95 km s-1). The
magnetic field was determined in a second step by interpreting the Hanle
effect on the line center linear polarization degree. The depolarizing
collisions with neutral hydrogen were taken fully into account through a
semi-classical calculation of their rates. An average value of B=38
Gauss was thus derived. Finally, error bars on the magnetic field values
were evaluated from a) the polarimetric inaccuracy, b) the limb distance
determination inaccuracy, and c) the uncertainty on our theoretical
collisional depolarizing rates that we evaluated. This combination leads
to 10-20% as total relative error on the magnetic field determination
by the Hanle effect method. Since the inaccuracy due to the model itself
was hard to properly evaluate, it was ignored. An uncertainty of
±60 km on the line formation depth was, however, derived from the
contribution functions. The magnetic field is found to increase slowly
with height in the height range 220-300 km above τ5000=1
and then decrease in the height range 300-370 km.