MRI: Development of Mees Massively-multipleXed Coronal Spectropolarimetric Magnetometer (mxCSM) for Ground and Space Coronal Magnetometry

这个为期4年的磁共振成像项目是在夏威夷的Mees太阳天文台开发高分辨率仪器，该仪器将测量太阳日冕的磁场。日冕，也就是太阳的大气层，是空间天气事件的起源。发生在日冕中的太阳喷发(日冕物质抛射和太阳耀斑)是复杂的电磁事件，可以对地球和整个太阳系产生重大影响。在近地环境中，它们可能会对卫星电子设备造成不利影响，导致电网中断，并伤害太空中的人类。百年一遇的风暴的影响现在是NSTC空间气象研究、运营和缓解小组委员会的重点。目前，测量的是太阳日冕的中等灵敏度和分辨率，并且是从地球的单一有利位置进行的。由于该系统的高度3D特性，这些单点测量结果很难解释。该项目既将作为未来能够进行多点测量的高分辨率空间仪器的新范例的测试，也将产生前所未有的数据，使全新的科学成为可能。这台仪器被设计成与美国国家科学基金会的丹尼尔·K·井上太阳望远镜一起工作，该望远镜将在低日冕的较小视野内拍摄非常高分辨率的图像。大规模多路复用式日冕光谱偏振磁强计(MxCSM)是一种15厘米的混合式离轴镜日冕仪，配有六通道光谱偏振仪，可在大视场(FOV)范围内同时测量六条日冕发射线(CEL)的磁极化信号。由于其高偏振灵敏度和大视场，mxCSM将能够以高的时间分辨率观测整个场线偏振的演化，足以研究日冕物质抛射(CME)和其他太阳爆发。它还将测量空间和时间分辨率较低的活动区的日冕磁场的视线分量。来自mxCSM的天气数据可用于对大型、长寿命日冕结构的磁场进行层析反演。这些新的日冕极化数据将为日冕模型的验证提供严格的观测约束，并将有助于促进我们对日冕加热和结构过程的理解。

This 4-year MRI project is to develop high resolution instrumentation at the Mees Solar Observatory in Hawaii, an EPSCoR state, which will measure the magnetic field of the solar corona. The corona, the atmosphere of the sun, is where space weather events originate. Solar eruptions (coronal mass ejections and solar flares), which occur in the corona, are complex electromagnetic events and can have significant impact at Earth and throughout the solar system. In the near-Earth environment, they can adversely impact satellite electronics, cause disruptions to power grids, and harm humans in space. The effects of a 1 in 100 year storm are now the focus of the NSTC subcommittee on Space Weather Research, Operations, and Mitigation. Currently, measurements are of the solar corona modest sensitivity and resolution and from a single vantage point, that of Earth. These single point measurements are complicated to interpret due to the highly 3D nature of the system. This project will both serve as a test for a new paradigm of future high resolution space-borne instruments enabling multi-point measurements and generate unprecedented data that will enable entirely new science. This instrument is designed to work as a system with NSF's Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope which will take very high resolution images from a smaller field of view in the low corona. The massively-multiplexed Coronal Spectropolarimetric Magnetometer or mxCSM, is a 15-cm hybrid off-axis mirror coronagraph equipped with a six-channel spectropolarimeter to measure the magnetic polarization signals of six coronal emission lines (CELs) simultaneously over a large field of view (FOV). With its high polarization sensitivity and large FOV, mxCSM will be able to observe the evolution of the linear polarization of the whole field with a high temporal resolution sufficient for the study of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and other solar eruptions. It will also measure the line-of-sight component of coronal magnetic fields in active regions with lower spatial and temporal resolution. Synoptic data from mxCSM can be used to perform tomographic inversion of the magnetic fields of large, long lived coronal structures. These new coronal polarization data will yield stringent observational constraints for coronal model validations, and will help advance our understanding of the processes that heat and structure the corona.