Journal
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL LETTERS
Volume 840, Issue 2, Pages -Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aa6fac
Keywords
solar wind; Sun: corona; Sun: magnetic fields
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation
- Air Force Office of Space Research [FA9550-15-1-0030]
- Computational and Information Systems Laboratory
- High Altitude Observatory
- Advanced Study Program
- Directorate For Geosciences
- Div Atmospheric & Geospace Sciences [1408789] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Magnetic fields in the Sun's outer atmosphere-the corona-control both solar-wind acceleration and the dynamics of solar eruptions. We present the first clear observational evidence of coronal magnetic nulls in off-limb linearly polarized observations of pseudostreamers, taken by the Coronal Multichannel Polarimeter (CoMP) telescope. These nulls represent regions where magnetic reconnection is likely to act as a catalyst for solar activity. CoMP linear-polarization observations also provide an independent, coronal proxy for magnetic expansion into the solar wind, a quantity often used to parameterize and predict the solar wind speed at Earth. We introduce a new method for explicitly calculating expansion factors from CoMP coronal linear-polarization observations, which does not require photospheric extrapolations. We conclude that linearly polarized light is a powerful new diagnostic of critical coronal magnetic topologies and the expanding magnetic flux tubes that channel the solar wind.
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